Uri Attack Aftermath: 5 Things India Must Do To Keep Pakistan's Terrorist Activities At Bay!

In the current wake of events where the cross borders situations are tense and everyone has their eye on India, its quiet important to make some strategic changes.

The successive Indian governments have struggled to formulate a credible, continuous and a fool proof policy on Pakistan. In spite of devoting much time and capabilities of the government, especially the security and the diplomatic establishment to the Pakistan issue, nothing much has come off it. Poorly scripted security doctrines, a government bitterly divided and essentially incoherent in its assessments and a turbulent terrorist state as a neighbour leads to attacks which are totally unwarranted!

Eenam Gambhir, first secretary to the Indian permanent mission to the UN, mentioned in her response to Nawaz Sharif's speech on the recent Uri attacks and went ahead to say, "The land of Taxila, one of the greatest learning centres of ancient times, is now host to the Ivy League of terrorism. It attracts aspirants and apprentices from all over the world."

Pakistan is a country with a democracy deficit, extending support to extremist groups, suppressing minorities and women. Here are some of the measures India must adopt to put a dead-stop to this infiltration at her borders.

1. Understanding Pakistan's military policy:

Pakistan's security strategy is built around a perceived existential threat from India. According to a former Pakistani Army general, the army in Pakistan remains an 'India-Centric' institution. According to its narrative, since the birth of the two countries in 1947 India has been an aggressor on at least three occasions, dismembered it, humbled it militarily repeatedly, built nuclear bombs that can wipe it off the map, and has been subjecting Kashmiris to humiliation. Further, Pakistan also frames a significant part of its security narrative around subjects such as rivers that flow across the border too.

Pakistan today spends a quarter of its tax collected on the military in some form or the other and it's a huge drain on its economy. The hefty funds from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia starting in the late 1970s helped Pakistan master the art of creating cannon fodder, misinterpreting Islam and propagating anti-social views to unleash terrorism on an unimaginable level. The modern-day instruction manual for this appalling retail licence for violence was written by the Pakistani military.

2. Expose and Isolate Pakistan locally and globally:

One of the most steady and firm responses that the Indian government must decide on is to stop all business, close the Indian skies for Pakistani flights. India also needs to take a firm stand in the international forums and make sure that India missions along with other allied nations to bring to the forefront the toxic terror plans Pakistan plans to hatch against South East Asia.

3. Learning from the Uri Carnage:

The cross border terror camps are getting stronger by the day with ISI support. Its rather surprising that the terrorists knew about the routines at the Uri camps and we cannot be sure about how much information is available with them which will probably enable them to wage attacks in the future. The need of the hour is to rethink the strategies we follow against cross border terror.

4. Enter a 3-month pact with Pakistan:

Pakistan would disintegrate all terror camps, hand over the wanted terrorists and criminals, within a given time-frame, failing which India would start with the surgical military air strikes across the border. India possess the firepower, and with Sukhoi-30MKIs and Jaguars in its arsenal to cluster bomb inside the Pakistani territory.

5. Cripple Pakistan:

The economy in Pakistan is imploding and India should help speed it up. The leather and the cotton industries are the major source of income and that too are on a constant decline. India should try to maximize on the losses and push Pakistan into a debt trap. India is the largest weapons-buying country in the world. This is because we are replenishing our arsenal. This also means that entire assembly lines in the world will shutdown if India does not buy their equipment. Rafale will shut down if India doesn't order from them, Bofors will cease to exist if India does not place an order. Thousands of jobs (and millions of votes) in those countries depend on India's orders. India needs to exercise control on all the sources providing arms, ammunition and aid to Pakistan. We also need to send out a stern and firm message to China that we would stop buying the electronics and helping their economy if they continue to aid Pakistan in its anti-social activities.

Most importantly, we need to stop showcasing our 'covert' attacks and jingoism. The need of the hour is to beef up the perimeter security, use high-end technology like drones, heat maps, analytics and artificial intelligence to disarm the terrorists from attacking in the future. One of the important measures can be using international collaboration to locate and disarm terror camps and still readying the military infrastructure for an offensive response to any cross border attack in the future. These measures are not hinted at suggesting war, but to take punitive measures to inflict pain on the perpetrator.