Facade

                Indian security forces have neutralized 167 terrorists so far this year-highest in years. In fact an average of one terrorist has been killed since May this year. As Indians we are indeed proud of this achievement - barring the ‘Azaadi brigade’ of course. But going beyond the nationalistic zeal, it is by all means a commendable achievement by a very professional and competent force. The game between terrorists/extremists and security forces is a very tricky one.  On one hand the forces seem to have a numeric advantage. But terrorists can mix up with the local populace (and not just in J&K but even elsewhere) making it difficult to track them. To further complicate, the forces have hundreds of installations to protect whereas the terrorists just need to strike one to prove a point. This is just a glimpse of how heavily skewed the game is in favor of the terrorists/ultras. Local support makes it much more complicated.

                Since Dec 2014, India has adopted a ‘two for a bullet’ approach vis-à-vis Pakistan. Every LOC violation has met a heavy response from India. But that did not deter the enemy enough. They responded with Pathankot and later Uri.  The Surgical strikes were successful and very much required to boost morale of the forces, besides delivering a strong message to Pakistan. But frankly speaking such strikes are high on rhetoric but low on value. In other words, you cannot expect the Para Commandos to launch such strikes every now and then to eliminate 25-50 militants. The political and diplomatic cost of failure is too high. Indian establishment understood this too well and seem to have reworked their approach. The results are for everybody to see. In the past, we have seen missions and operations to neutralize specific terrorists. But this is the first time since the 90s that such a prolonged operation has been taken up which has almost wiped up the entire leadership. The Intelligence gathering and coordination between various agencies is simply amazing! It almost looks like a video game! A new one comes up and there you go-BOOM !

                This government is known for using facades to hide their real act/motives. We particularly witnessed this after the Uri attacks when the Government keep everybody busy thinking there would be a diplomatic response like reviewing the Indus Water treaty, while they actually launched the surgical strikes.  Well- Now it looks like the surgical strikes actually were a façade! They helped calm the initial domestic discontent giving the forces time to actually plan and carry out their mission! So the response to Uri and Pathankot is not the surgical strikes, but what’s been going on for past six months! And if the success rate is any indicator, this is just the beginning! To an extent that the IG of Kashmir openly jokes that nobody is now ready to take up the mantle of LET!!.

                So what does it all mean? Will this bring peace? No. Will it reduce terrorist attacks? Probably not in a long term. Will it solve the Kashmir problem? Of course not! But then it was never about peace or freedom in the first place. One would have been stupid enough to expect ‘freedom’ for Kashmir with such terrorist attacks just as it is stupid to expect peace with elimination of terrorists. It’s a game the sleuths play to establish superiority.  This game can only be finished on the negotiating table with the political leadership involved.

 Till that happens? The game’s on!!