Indian army had on the early hours of Thursday infiltrated into enemy territory and carried out surgical strikes causing a large number of terrorists to be dead. There were no casualties on the Indian side. This became an ideal recipe for a pat on our back. Congratulatory messages started pouring in primarily on Twitter & followed on Facebook. It seemed like no patriot wanted to be left behind. The Indian twiterrati trolled Pakistan to the extent that there were 2,00,000 tweets using the hashtag #SurgicalStrike originating from India (at the time of writing this post), with almost 500 tweets per minute at its peak. Pakistan tried to retaliate on Twitter but lost the war of tweets within minutes on Thursday afternoon. At the time of writing, the hashtag #SurgicalStrike was trending worldwide at No.1, until Niall Horan released his debut love song #ThisTown which went viral. As they say, everything is fair in love & war!
The tweets poured in from the metros like Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore & right from the thick of action as well!
However, the pat has to come with a measure of caution. For the past three decades, India and Pakistan have been at each other’s throat with the low intensity war on Kashmir blowing hot and cold interspersed with bus visits
and birthday cakes. No doubt, the army has done a commendable job in performing the surgical strikes. For our men in uniform to be continually on alert at the border, it will take much more than the planning and execution that went into the surgical strike. They cannot afford to rest on their backs and say “Ah we have taught them a lesson once and for all.” Acts of cross border terrorism
have been bogging India ever since the 1992-93 serial blasts that shook the island city of Bombay which was sponsored by Pakistan. It’s in this context that we feel if we have to rejoice, we cannot afford to let our guard down.
The army strike in PoK comes as a welcome breather to the continuous pounding that India has taken from terrorists from across the border. However, the question that looms large is can this be a deterrent enough to ensure that such strikes will not take place in the future or still worse the strike does not result in an escalation to a war situation?
Pakistan on its part has denied that there have been any surgical strikes and stated that it was routine firing across the LoC to which the Pakistani army has given a fitting reply. As long as they live in the denial mode, it might seem that they are less likely to deliberate on retaliation.
The need of the hour is effective intelligence gathering rather than any technology. Effective intelligence gathering can not only prove to be a stitch in time but also remedial to the increasing number of casualties on the Indian side, both civilian and military. In this context, the army has to ensure that it creates an amicable relationship with the locals and sheds the image of playing the villain. Only when you win the trust of the locals, can you think of effectively countering the enemy without.
To sum up, there is no substitute for the human eye and it should be put to the fullest use by strategic posturing and constant vigil. Congratulations to the Indian army for its deft handling of the operation.