Pahalgam Terror Attack: Spontaneous Response

Brig Rajiv Williams

Editor's Note

After the terror attack at Pahalgam on 22 April 25 this is the first spontaneous piece to emerge from the MVI platform . More will follow in due course as the media focus has once again shifted to J& K .

No words can express my angst and sorrow for the dastardly act on 22 April ,2025 at Pahalgam ,for which we have no one else to blame but ourselves. “An absolute failure - intelligence, military alertness, proactive actions and assessments. Sad ,no very sad ! Our focus is elsewhere.” We have lost respect and blame the State from across, which is a well-known and established story and known to everyone. Do we acknowledge the fact that we have failed – the military has failed and no one wants to take the ownership of such failure – just blame the other guy, the agency, the neighbour and move on.

We have been over-confident of the peace and tranquility in the area and tourism is flourishing – yes it is and perhaps was before this incident but to ensure it keeps flourishing we have to take proactive steps that such dastardly acts do not occur. What has changed since Kargil, since Uri and the Surgical Strike or since Pulwama and post Pulwama or Anantnag and post Anantnag, etc. - Nothing and we keep shifting the blame game and move the pole of acceptability further away from the “Who” is responsible and it certainly is not me !

I believe the earlier we accept responsibility of our actions and heads roll – nothing will really happen. It is just 'sab chalta hai '– now there will be a lull for a few years and then the next strike. Our positioning would have changed and someone else will have to answer. Why?

There has been conversation in the article as also on the TV channels that we must act – we must cross the LC and strike. How loose can such talk be. I am sure there are well calibrated actions, which our military leaders with the political 'Will' will address in the time of their choosing. What we need to do is what we can do and to my way of thinking and a clear message for our uniformed fraternity is “Please do not depart from basic military tactics” – Let strategy and all that goes with it to include modernization, mechanization, technology-isation, etc.,be left to people who have that authority. We - ‘Grounds men’ must keep our focus on what is there and innovatively apply our minds to get that information – that intelligence before the target is struck and not debate - "Had we done this or this is what should now be done! "