A year after Pulwama, it’s time for outreach in J&K
Deccan ChronicleOn February 14, 2019, a suicide car bomb attack on a CRPF convoy on the newly-rolled out highway from Srinagar to Qazigund led to a catastrophic loss of 40 Indian paramilitary personnel returning from leave. This was mandatory since a lack of response would run hollow to the strategy the Indian government had adopted following the Uri terror attack, which led to the surface-based surgical strikes of September 28, 2016. In such a situation, the politico-strategic aim of the Indian government appeared to focus upon conveying that India could see through the nuclear bluff, would employ a calibrated kinetic response at a time and place of its own choosing, and display the will to escalate if necessary. The targets were purely terror-related and despite intense links between the Pakistan Army and the West Punjab-based terror groups, the Indian response did not target any military facility. The Indian narrative about being one of the oldest victims of trans-national terror through the Pakistan- On August 5, with unprecedented security arrangements in J&K, the special constitutional provisions for J&K were legislatively annulled and the administrative setup of the state restructured to carve out two Union territories — Ladakh, and Jammu & Kashmir.