What Should India’s Approach to Pahalgam Terror Attack be? | Gouri Sankar Nag & Ajay Majumder

The 2025 Pahalgam attack was an attack on tourists by five armed militants near Pahalgam, in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed on 22 April.

The country is no doubt deeply anguished by the Pahalgam attack, but to understand the teleology behind this act, we need more than national grief and the war cry of retribution. If we search from a dispassionate perspective, we will find two particularly troubling aspects of this event: first, in peacetime we usually discount the underlying tectonic fissures that exist and can deal a veritable jolt to the nation’s core. Second, the contemporariness of this incident might lead us to a blind alley where the state and its emotional response might combine to deepen a fault line that remains intact and pertinent seventy-six years after independence. And needless to say, that it is not wealth but human life that remains non-negotiable in a democracy.

THE SPATIAL DIMENSION of the Pahalgam incident is also important because the attack entailed border crossing, a venture that challenged state sovereignty on one hand; it also made Indian Kashmir look like still being a marginal State that appeared to throw the gauntlet of dissent to the entrenched Centre. It gave the union government the opportunity to avoid our own failure of not being able to evolve a workable relationship with our western neighbour despite championing ‘secularism’ as a character of the Indian nation state .

Thus, it also allowed the government to return to the 75-year-old blamegame – ‘Pakistan’s black hand’ – and let it continue to pursue the western logic of boundary-making, the consequent saga of marginality and why PoK and IoK cannot share a permeable border due to proximate regions and cultures. The Indian government should recognize that reacting aggressively in such a tense situation may not be the wisest course of action.

If terrorism is born out of the breeding ground of division and vendetta, the question arises why we let these rifts continue to grow? We know that mainstream politics won’t be interested in asking such basic questions. Rather it would always priorities political authority over shared cultural space. Hence, boundary-marking and controlling migration or securitising migration on the ground of ‘threat to national interest’ is what we thrive on as a nation state. This is how India had officially treated the Rohingya refugee influx issue. At that time, we were so inhuman; but now, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, there is a perplexing the narrative of humanity, side-by-side with the muscle-flexing.

This does not mean the violence is being defended. We too think and apprehend that the timing selected for the attack was very significant because the attack took place during the visit of US Vice President J D Vance to India and Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Soudi Arabia.

There appear two obvious reasons behind this orchestrated attack:

First, since the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked in 2019, the region has gradually returned to normalcy after years of unrest. It has once again become a thriving tourist destination, with record numbers of visitors in recent years. This revival has boosted local employment and business opportunities, and notably, the region has witnessed a period of relative peace, free from major attacks. The terrorists could not tolerate this kind of positive transformation – the flourishing of Jammu and Kashmir as a peaceful destination of prosperous tourism. This attack disrupted this progress and has plunged the region back into looming instability, putting India in a vulnerable condition. The Indian response was so predictable.

Secondly, following the passage of the Waqf bill (now Act) in India recently, certain segments of the Muslim community expressed severe dissatisfaction, leading to debates, protests, and tension escalation in various parts of the country.

To all anti-Indian forces, it seemed, Muslims in India are angry and dissatisfied, and ripe to side with terrorists mounting attacks on India. However, this is not so. The terrorists intended to ignite the situation further and send a provocative message to hardline elements within India, to destabilize the country. They discounted the fact that debates and protests are democratic processes and Indian Muslims were only expressing their rights as citizens of a democratic polity. The Pahalgam attack had many stories of the community members offering assistance to victims.

The attack was not carried out by any widely recognised or officially-designated terrorist group in the west of the country. Instead, it was executed by a relatively obscure group that operates under the security radar.

It was successful because there was a security failure (At the all-party meeting, on 24 April, the union government admitted that there were security lapses that led to the recent attack in Pahalgam). India shares long and porous borders with countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar. Due to weak surveillance and inadequate fencing in some areas, militants and illegal arms often enter Indian territory undetected. The Pahalgam terrorists reportedly infiltrated the border from Kishtwar in Jammu and then Baisaran via Kokernag in south Kashmir. It suggests that the infiltrators were not from the local communities, but they were dispatched for the mission and tutored by their mentors.

They deliberately chose soft targets – ordinary civilians – instead of the usual army convoys or military camps. Their primary aim was to instill fear and panic among the public and send a strong message to the Indian government. The terrorists were aware that a large number of tourists from mainland India visit Kashmir every year during the summer season, hence they intentionally chose this time to maximize the impact.

This time, it was not an indiscriminate act of killing. The outfit members behaved unscrupulously by asking religious questions and opened fire on people mercilessly when the victim could not recite the kalma. Incidentally, there were some Hindus who could recite the kalma, and their lives were spared. The attack was plainly an act of abominable hatred and relatively amateurish.

India’s Options

What are the options available to the Indian government now?
Security should be immediately tightened across vulnerable regions, especially at border infiltration points. These areas must be placed under strict surveillance and high alert.

Instead of rushing into any impetuous large-scale military action, India should focus on long-term solutions – strengthening intelligence, improving counter-terrorism, improving Centre-State and regional coordination, avoiding any provocation that may pander to exactly what Pakistan possibly wants – the attack, with predictable results may be a strategic trap. If additional credible proofs are identified, a limited and precise counterstrike – similar to the 2016 surgical strike – can be considered as a proportional response.

This moment offers a unique diplomatic opportunity, as India enjoys broad global support – from Arab nations to the United States, Russia, and Europe. India should utilise the moment to take the lead in building a multilateral alliance to isolate Pakistan and intensify international pressure against terrorism.

India should consider taking this matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), highlighting Pakistan’s continued support and culpability for cross-border terrorism.

The government should clearly communicate through the media that it condemns terrorism, all terrorism, including Pakistan-sponsored acts and plots. This message should be part of official media propaganda to restore public confidence and build up international awareness.

Terrorist attacks are not new, and India has been a long-time victim of such violence. While the country has made considerable progress in its counter-terrorism operations, it is concerning that the tactics of sabotage are continuously evolving. The rise in terrorist activities in India can be attributed to a combination of complex and interrelated factors.

Terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir is because of the region’s difficult terrain, marked by hilly, inaccessible, and uneven areas. This provides an advantage to terrorists who infiltrate across the border, particularly along the Line of Control, and carry out attacks with relative ease.

The widespread accessibility of the internet has allowed fundamentalist groups to spread hateful content and extremist ideologies through online propaganda. Social media and encrypted platforms are being used to disseminate misinformation and incite violence.

The growing threat of terrorist-sabotage in India stems from a mix of external hostilities and internal vulnerabilities. To address this challenge effectively, India must adopt a multi-pronged approach that includes strengthening border security, enhancing de-radicalisation efforts, improve inter-agency coordination, and engage in proactive international diplomacy. Now let’s look at India’s position in the Global terrorism index over the past five years.

Source: Institute for Economic & Peace Measuring the Impact of Terrorism

Finally, one important point must be addressed: we need to properly review our internal security and intelligence systems and address the vulnerability or fault line that exists, with adequate course correction to prevent similar incidents occurring in future. The Pulwama attack serves as a painful reminder. The terrorists had prior knowledge of the exact movement of the CRPF convoy –information that should have been classified. Hence the question is raised who was responsible for leaking such information and how did 300 kg of RDX reach Pulwama without detection. These critical questions and lapses remain unanswered even today.

The 2025 Pahalgam attack is a sad and poignant moment in the history of our national journey. So, whatever we claim or contemplate, the solution does not lie in punitive measures or treating the neighbour as culturally an ‘Other’. Rather, a different narrative might open new thought lines and understanding, which is really people-centric and inclusive rather than a reality fraught with attacks, riots and pogroms.

(Author: Gouri Sankar Nag is Professor and Head, Department of Political Science Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University and Dr Ajay Majumder is a former Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University)