Pakistan has yet again showcased its barbaric Janus face after mutilating two Indian soldiers in the Kashmir valley just a few months after the ‘surgical strikes’.

Two Indian soldiers – Head Constable Prem Sagar (200 BSF Battalion) and Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh (22 Sikh Regiment) – were martyred and their bodies were mutilated after the Border Action Team of Pakistan with aid from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out a well-planned ambush 200 metres inside Indian territory.

Pakistan has dared India again and a clear message has been delivered from across the border and a befitting reply needs to be sent.

This is how effective response against Pak can be done:

Multi-pronged punishment

Though India has carried out military actions against Pakistan, has fought against Pakistan politically and it has also given diplomatic shockers, but this time Indian government need to come up with a Multi-level plan to shake Pakistan.

The Indian government needs to come up with a plan that involves a mix Military, covert, Political and Diplomatic actions.

Operations along LoC and using drones to mount surveillance

Conducting artillery strikes across the border may be an option and Indian forces had done the same thing in 2015 after a similar barbaric act by Pakistan.
In the recent past also Indian armed forces carried out ‘surgical strikes’ last year after the Uri attack when 19 Indian soldiers were martyred.

But considering the fact that since the beginning of 2017, 65 ceasefire violations has been recorded by the army from across the border.

Talking to NewsMobile, former veteran and Defence Expert, Anil Kaul said:

“There should be a prompt action by the military as soon as such actions take place from across the border and then authorities should talk to come up with a primary action plan.”

“There should be full freedom with the military to act against such barbaric actions,” Kaul added.

Meanwhile Major General (retd.) GD Bakshi said:

“Are we going to hit back hard at last? Till this night we were only using small arms and mortars- which is a joke considering that both ours and his troops are in Bunkers. This is a typical BSF level response and actually does very little on the ground except make a lot of noise. If we are really serious we will hit back hard with medium guns at least on those posts from which this attack came.”

“If Pak escalates we could widen area of conflict to hit his truly vulnerable areas and of these there are many. We can’t take it lying down and respond timidly. See how the rest of the world is doing in Syria, Afghanistan and FATA,” Major General Bakshi added.

Limited War and precision surgical strikes

While top sources from the army said that an appropriate and fitting response should be given to Pakistan, it has to be noted that India, despite the government’s ‘no-talk-till-terror-ends’, has suffered consecutive setbacks at the hand of the neighbours.

The intel collected by India clearly point out how Pakistan has been harbouring terrorism across the Line of Control (LoC), apart from taking aid from terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India now needs to go full throttle to ensure a limited war with Pakistan seeks to destroy these terror targets through precision bombing.

Hitting the business interests of Pakistan

Unless sustained pressure is built Pakistan will continue to believe that it will be business as usual. India should speak to countries like UAE with influence over Pakistan to stop terrorism and hand over perpetrators.

Else ensure trade curbs on Pakistani products, disincentives companies dealing with Pakistani companies and encourage global MNC’s and woo them away from Pakistan. This will require some strong willed approach by the PM as vested interests in India have tried to block economic sanctions against Pakistan.

Mobilising International community

Mobilisation of international community bilaterally and multilaterally. Intense campaign in social media with proof of Pakistani complicity.

Ensuring a move towards declaring Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, a travel ban against Pakistani army and Intelligence officials and their families and freezing their illegal assets abroad.

Clampdown on financial assets of their associates.Censure by global multilateral community and their key allies.

Political Unity at home

It is the time for national unity, leaders need to set aside their political agendas and the government and the opposition need to be united to respond to the terror-sponsor state of Pakistan.

(With inputs from Abheet Raghav)