JAMMU: India has inflicted an unforgettable defeat on Pakistan. This is a far bigger defeat for the neighbouring country than what it experienced and suffered in 1971 when it lost its eastern wing, which is now Bangladesh.
Pakistan started it with the April 22 massacre in Pahalgam, thinking that it would be business as usual after some time. It had seen surgical strike, in the wake of September 18, 2016 Uri attack, and aerial strike in February 2019, after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF men were martyred. That retaliation was on a limited scale, as compared to what Pakistan went through in the four days, beginning with the May 6-7 night strikes at the terror bases in Pakistan and Pak occupied Kashmir.
India, in these four days, demonstrated that Pakistan will have to pay a very heavy price for killing innocent citizens of the country, who were on a pleasure-seeking trip to a meadow, merging with the unmatched beauty with which nature has blessed Kashmir. Pakistan tested India’s patience and capacity of restraint to absorb things. It has delivered an emphatic message through the military action, after Pakistan sought to escalate the situation by targeting civilians and military installations in India. Its calculations went horribly wrong. It lost almost everything in Nur Khan, Sukkur, Rahim Yar Khan, Jacobabad and Sargodha airbases. The whole o Pakistan was rattled. And then came the request for ‘ceasefire’, which India said could only be an understanding that too only as long as Pakistan doesn’t initiate any hostile action. In that eventuality, Pakistan was warned that there would be no mercy from the Indian side.
PERSPECTIVE
In 1971, the Indo-Pak war lasted for 13 days. It ended with Pakistan army’s surrender to the Indianan Army on December 16, 1971. This was the biggest ever surrender- nearly one lakh Pakistani army men had become Prisoners of War, and East Pakistan had vanished. A new country, by the name of Bangladesh had taken shape on the territory that was once East Pakistan.
But in May 2025, the conflict lasted for less than four days and Pakistan, after sensing its losses, requested for ceasefire. India agreed to it with certain conditions that any violation of the terms of the understanding to halt military action would have disastrous consequences. This time, Pakistan was face to face with the stark reality that it may lose whatever was left of it. These four days showed it the mirror of the colossal losses that it had never suffered for generations. There is no possibility of standing on its own.
Fifty four years ago, it had no fear of losing waters , which it controlled under the World Bank brokered Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. And soon after the Simla Agreement of July 1972, the business resumed to its normal times before the war of 1971.
This time, Pakistan made a cardinal mistake of underestimating the resolve of the Government of India. It should have understood the seriousness of the situation and what was coming on to it when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, declared that perpetrators and backers of the heinous terror act in Pahalgam will be meted out an unimaginable punishment.
It failed to read writing on the wall. Now, India has set a new normal that all acts of terror would be responded with the military action, which will have nothing but destruction for Pakistan.
After the 1971 war, Pakistan had a chance to rebuild its western and the only side left with it. This time Pakistan is in danger of losing everything, from geography to demography. A question of survival is staring at it.
