Operation Sindoor was launched as Bharat’s retaliation to the perpetrators of the heinous Pahalgam massacre on May 22, 2025, carried out by Pakistan sponsored terrorists and was launched by Indian Armed Forces on the night of May 6th-7th with the declared aim of measured, proportionate and non-escalatory response.
Pak Fails to Escalate
Unfortunately, Pakistan rather than agreeing to disassociate itself from cross-border terrorism decided to escalate. India was very confident of escalation dominance and hence gave a befitting reply to Pakistan’s escalation keeping an eye on the escalation control since the stated aim had been achieved on the first night itself. Indian Armed Forces, in a well-coordinated campaign, brought the Pakistani Armed Forces to their knees in 72 hours and forced it to beg for a ceasefire. India responded by declaring temporary stoppage of fire but Operation Sindoor was not called off. Operation Sindoor will be studied and analysed by the students of military history & New Age Warfare with interest and curiosity. It will go down in the annals of military history as one of the swiftest military operations. The operation also shattered many myths which had been promoted.
Debunking Myths
Consequent to the success of Operation Sindoor, the broken myths are enumerated in the succeeding paragraphs. Deep State is Responsible for Cross-Border Terrorism: The events of May 7th wherein the funerals of the killed terrorists were attended by the top leadership of the Pakistan Army, senior police officers, Ministers and legislators, civil servants proved to the entire world that there was no distinction between the Deep State and the civil administration and political leadership were as much part of the Deep State as the Army, ISI and the jihadis. In Pakistan the Deep State and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan were synonyms.
Impenetrable Pak’s Air Defence: Pakistan’s Air Defence systems, based primarily on the Chinese equipment, were either bypassed, jammed or silenced by executing meticulously planned strikes on the night of May 8th and 9th employing Rafale jets, missiles, armed drones and loitering munitions. The 23-minute strike on the night of May 8th exposed the vulnerabilities in Pakistan’s air defence contradicting claims of the system being impenetrable.
Nuclear Capability of Pakistan: Ever since Pakistan became nuclear it embraced terrorism as an instrument of state policy, a low-cost option to bleed India and deter it from any cross-border adventure. However, the Indian think tank always maintained that in the context of the sub continent there existed enough space on the escalation ladder between the two extremities of Sub Conventional War and a Nuclear War. The Indian Army demonstrated the same in Kargil in 1999, the surgical strikes after Uri and the aerial attacks by the Indian Air Force after the Pulwama terror attack by calling out the nuclear bluff of Pakistan. Yet Pakistan remained blinded and did not adhere to the adequate warnings given by India considering the nuclear arsenal as a shield against any Indian aggression. Operation Sindoor has totally shattered the ill-conceived confidence of the Pakistani establishment and exposed its nuclear bluff to be hollow by hitting across the length and breadth of Pakistan with precision attacks and intelligence driven operations.
India displayed to the world its confidence of managing nuclear risks through calibrated and proportional responses to Pakistani escalation. Throughout Operation Sindoor, India maintained escalation dominance compelling Pakistan to offer a ceasefire.
Terrorist Infrastructure in Pak Is Safe: The operation neutralised about 100 terrorists. Many of them were masterminds of various terror attacks in India. The terror universities being run at Bahawalpur and Murdike, HQ of the two banned global terror outfits JeM and LeT, proved beyond doubt India’s resolve to hit the terrorists wherever they choose to hide in Pakistan. It debunked the notion that such sites were beyond reach due to political or strategic conditions. Numerous terror facilities of JeM, LeT and HM were razed to the ground.
Use of Chinese Equipment: Pakistan’s major war fighting inventory is of Chinese origin. Pakistan had created much hype of invincibility of the superior Chinese equipment, that had never been tested in combat. It was their blind faith in the Chinese equipment that led them to show defiance after the initial Indian strike. The myth was broken in the next 48 hours when the Indian Armed Forces decimated their Air Defence System and neutralised in the air much hyped aerial platforms including fighter jets and drones.
Civilian Areas Provide Safe Cover to Terror Camps: Terrorists often used civilians as a shield to protect themselves or to get away. With precise attacks on urban-adjacent areas like Murdike and Sialkot, India showed that proximity to civilian areas wouldn’t shield terror infrastructure that is co-located. This challenged Pakistan’s use of civilian areas as cover for terrorist camps.
Modern Warfare Requires Large Scale Mobilisation: Operation Sindoor has showcased the New Age Warfare and the efficacy of precision weapons. The Armed Forces which have assimilated technology no longer depend on conventional resource heavy operations. Through use of advanced technology like precision weapons, supersonic missiles, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, satellite surveillance, net-centric warfare and autonomous weapons, India was able to break the will of the enemy to fight and prevented an escalation to a conventional all-out war.
Bharat’s Response to Terror Attacks Is Limited to LOC: Operation Sindoor marked a doctrinal shift with India striking deep into Pakistan’s Punjab province (Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Murdike, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan) far beyond the LOC. It set a new normal wherein India has displayed its determination to hit terror infrastructure anywhere regardless of location or political sensitivity.
Despite agreement of stop of fire on May 10, 2025, India declared Operation Sindoor as an “ongoing” operation signalling India’s resolve for sustained counter-terror operation indicating long-term commitment to counter-terrorism.
Operation Sindoor has set a normal for India’s approach to counter-terrorism. It has also shown to the world that India, in future, will employ its comprehensive national power against any threat to its sovereignty. It would employ kinetic as well as non-kinetic resources as a swift and punitive response to any terror attack having trans border links.
