There is a common question asked by international observers during India-Pakistan military actions: Who escalated? This question assumes that escalation is the core issue, overlooking the prior terrorism activities. Operation Sindoor in May 2025 was not the beginning of a war but a response to 35 years of ongoing Pakistani-sponsored terrorism against India.
Pakistan’s strategy involved supporting terrorist groups to attack Indian targets, followed by threats of nuclear escalation when India retaliated. This cycle persisted for decades, with events like the 1989 Kashmir militancy escalation and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Despite international calls for de-escalation, the terrorist infrastructure remained intact, fueling repeated attacks.
Several factors led to a change in this cycle in May 2025. The Pahalgam attack’s brutality and religious targeting garnered strong international condemnation, undermining Pakistan’s usual deniability. India’s enhanced military capabilities, including precision strikes and advanced defense systems, also played a crucial role. Additionally, India’s shift in response doctrine under the Modi government signaled a readiness to act decisively against terrorism.
Operation Sindoor resulted in the destruction of nine terrorist camps, strikes on Pakistani airbases, and significant losses for Pakistan’s air defense infrastructure. India’s new doctrine treats terrorism as an act of war, signaling an end to the impunity enjoyed by Pakistan’s terror sponsorship. The operation demonstrated that major attacks traced back to terrorist infrastructures in Pakistan would face swift and forceful responses.
The international community’s response to the 2025 crisis highlighted the stark differences between India and Pakistan’s actions. India targeted terrorist infrastructure, while Pakistan attacked religious and civilian sites. The crisis underscored the contrasting approaches of a democracy responding to terrorism and a state using terrorism as a foreign policy tool. The world witnessed India’s transparency in its actions versus Pakistan’s dissemination of propaganda, emphasizing the need to abandon false equivalence between the two nations.
