Mere defensive posturing and reactive drills have failed to deter the terrorists

Pakistan’s long-standing strategy of employing proxy war tactics against India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, poses a significant threat to national security. The ongoing recruitment, training, arming, and financing of terrorists by Pakistan has resulted in numerous attacks on civilians and Indian Army personnel. The recent strikes in Kathua and Doda resulting in a high rate of our soldiers’ casualties are stark reminders of this persistent menace. To combat this menace effectively, the Indian Government and the Army need to transition from their reactive stance to a proactive offensive approach. Having served in the Army and Special Forces like the NSG, I dare say there is a need for reviewing our fighting concepts, strategies and tactics from top to bottom.
Whereas we need a distinctly visible and universally credible national policy to destroy all forms of terrorism and anti-national activities within and outside the Indian territory, there is also a need to recast our strategy at the execution level, that is, military, police, CPOs and the civil administration.
Threat Analysis

Proxy war involves indirect engagement where a hostile nation uses third parties to fight on its behalf causing attrition and spreading intimidation across people in the targeted areas. It is no longer any secret that the Pakistan Army’s primary intelligence arm – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – recruits, equips, trains, finances and pushes terrorists into the Indian territory to carry out sporadic attacks on unsuspecting civilians and military patrols and installations. Even as the Indian Army and security forces have killed and apprehended many such terrorists over the years, such counter measures have proved nothing more than reactive and marginally punitive without hurting the guilty nation much. Costs thus imposed on Pakistan are too frugal to hurt and quite affordable even for today’s Pakistan which is neck-deep in financial debt. These proxies are well-trained, heavily armed, often aided by local empathisers, and strategically supported making them formidable adversaries. They employ surprise attacks on civilian targets and military convoys, causing significant casualties and spreading fear and instability. The proxy soldiers of Pakistan have now graduated from AK 47s to the US-made M4 assault rifles, Chinese gadgetry and encrypted radio sets and satellite phones.
While there is visible development and a discernible positive shift in the locals towards development projects and fast rising tourism, the Jammu region has suddenly emerged as terrorists’ new playfield. The recent attacks in Riasi, Rajauri, Kathua and Doda highlight a new trend of evolving tactics of these terror groups. Equipped with high-precision firearms that could damage even bulletproof vehicles, they were most likely helped locally with navigational aids and logistics too.
India’s new offensive strategy started taking shape when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power heading a comfortable single-party majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014. Carrying out cross-border surgical strikes in September 2016, the Indian Army eliminated seven terrorist launch pads, killing all terrorist elements who were planning to infiltrate into India from those launch pads. After the Pulwama convoy attack on 14 February 2019, India launched the first ever air strike since the 1971 Indo-Pak War. As a consequence of these offensive actions from India, there had been a discernible decline in the Pakistan sponsored terrorism in J&K and elsewhere as well. Alarms were against the removal of Article 370 especially by politicians like Farukh Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who claimed “Kashmir will be on fire! There would be none to pick up India’s national flag there!” Yet, it remained peaceful and most people welcomed it. The youths in the Kashmir Valley are no longer indulging in stone-pelting against the Army and the terror graph has also significantly declined. Across the border, however, there is no decline in Pakistan’s terror export policy. Any complacency or predictable style of military operations would be suicidal.
India’s national aim must be explicitly defined and eloquently stated. The USA has no military threat from across its borders and yet, they have the world’s largest Armed Forces. To offset the costs of maintaining such large military power, it has a robust armament industry which not only meets its own military needs but exports all kinds of military hardware from rifles to tanks, warships to aircraft and hordes of other state-of-the-art technologies. Even as India is racing to be the world’s 3rd largest economy, our top leadership is focusing not on sharpening the fighting potential of the Armed Forces but on reducing the manpower to reduce the pension budget of the growing number of defence pensioners! All this when we have live threats all along our land borders from China and Pakistan.
In addition to the perpetuity of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, India is also strewn with several internal security issues from insurgents, leftists disguised as intellectuals and pseudo guardians of human rights patronised by various political parties. Unless liquidated through ‘encounters’ and covert operations, such operatives have enough resources to wriggle out of the rings of law. India’s vote bank based politics is the bane of all ills that threaten not only internal security but also encourage external enemies to take advantage of the widening communal divides within.
Needed a Multi-pronged Strategy

Prolonged deployment of the Army to fight this ongoing proxy war has acquired a predictable pattern rendering our military camps, patrols and convoys increasingly vulnerable to the terrorists waiting to hit with grenades and bursts of fire before melting away into the forest of friendly habitats. These proxy soldiers are trained, equipped and helped to cross over to India with the help of Pakistan Rangers through pre-determined safe routes under the cover of darkness or inclement weather. There is now a need to review the current field tactics and evolve a two-pronged strategy: 1) Area Domination and 2) Surgical Strikes.
1. Area Domination: Units are fairly well trained and experienced in this aspect except that they need to be equipped with the latest technology including harnessing our Satellites for real-time imageries, area scanning through drones at the unit level, prompt helicopter availability on demand and so on. The Army’s relationship with the local population is of paramount importance too. However, experience reveals that irrespective of religion, locals in the border areas remain vulnerable to exploitation and greed. That is why it has often turned out that the local guide himself was the culprit guiding our patrol to pass through the ‘killing ground’ chosen by the terrorists waiting under cover. Nonetheless, sealing off from the locals would be even more blinding. Units and intelligence resources with field formations should keep vigil and provide actionable intelligence to the troops on the ground. Keeping the movement of terrorists under continuous surveillance is of paramount importance too.
2. Cross border Covert Ops. All through India has followed a policy of good peaceful neighbourliness with neighbours including Pakistan. It is widely known throughout the world that Pakistan has not honoured this gesture of goodwill and indulged in transporting cross-border terrorists to make people’s lives unsafe. India, on its part, has been suffering avoidable loss of life and material. This stance must change. India must now change its operational response and mount covert operations inside Pakistan territory. Such operations should render routine military and civilian activities unsafe not merely for a specific period but as a matter of routine. Intelligence agencies like RAW and MI must be speedily reorganised, re-equipped and expanded to carry out these tasks covertly. The aim of such operations should be to coerce the enemy to surrender, that is, to force Pakistan to seek peace and cooperation with India and agree to sign a Treaty for Peace, Friendship and Cooperation at the latter’s terms. It may not happen in a month or a year, but if India were to sustain such pressure on Pakistan, it is very likely to yield positive results.
3. Special Forces Missions. India’s Special Forces (SF) enjoy a reputation of highly capable that can match the very best in the world. They may be employed under the direction of the Strategic Command to hit and destroy predesignated targets of strategic significance. It is essential to carry out such missions under the cover of absolute secrecy maintaining the ability to credibly deny it. Pakistan has been indulging in such missions from the beginning. If Ajmal Kasab was not caught alive in Mumbai in November 2008, Pakistan would have denied the Mumbai attack as stubbornly as it has always done for the rest all along.
4. Counter-Proxies: The current socio-political situation in Pakistan is ideal for India to recruit ‘counter-proxies’ within Pakistan. India’s intelligence agencies should identify and create a covert force within Pakistan. Agreed that such mercenaries would often betray but our intelligence agencies would be conscious of such betrayals and plan effective measures to terminate such moves soonest as discovered. The anti-government anti-Army bitterness among Pathans triggered by the imprisonment of Imran Khan, the ongoing alienation and unrest in Baluchistan, growing resentment in Sindh and even in PoK are ripe opportunities for the Indian secret services to pluck and exploit.
5. Cyber Warfare: India’s cyber capabilities are provenly better than Pakistan’s. Yet, we have not done much to exploit our superior cyber capabilities and remained content fighting a defensive counter-terrorist battle and suffering attrition all this while. The time has come when India must muster all its national security resources including its cyber warfare machinery and employ them in proactive offensive missions. India’s cyber-attacks could disrupt the financial networks, hamper communication networks, cripple the banking system, disrupt supply chains, push malware, phishing and even spoofing from time to time. Such proactive cyber activities would impose extra caution on the Government and the Army affecting their efficiency and sucking extra resources to guard their assets.
6. The ‘AI’ Factor. AI has added a new dimension to threats and responses as well. In the age of a hugely diversified spectrum of media communication systems, it has become cumbersome and time consuming for military analysts to correctly assess and react to fleeting opportunities. This problem is now largely solved by the advent of AI tools that would provide real-time responses. Systems based on AI can decipher encrypted communications and predict fairly accurately the coming threat. AI has also simplified the control and guidance of aerial vehicles, and drones besides predicting and shooting vital targets most accurately in real-time. At the moment, however, not much is publically known about the advancements, if any, made by the Indian military planners and what capabilities exist in this field today.
Economic Measures
There is enough evidence that a lot of cash flow continues to fund terrorists overtly in the name of religion, health, education and covertly through hawala channels. Government intelligence agencies are already conscious of such cash flows and have been doing a commendable job in sealing such illegal flow-ins. Extra vigil and more deterrent and swift actions are, however, needed to be mounted to deter terror funding. It is also of equal importance that Indian authorities must maintain close rapport and cooperation with international financial institutions.
Efforts of different agencies interacting with different international financial institutions will be more meaningful and effective when buttressed diplomatically as well. Imposing economic sanctions on individuals and entities involved in supporting terrorism should be interwoven to have the desired effect. India should also adjust trade policies to economically isolate Pakistan leveraging India’s position in global trade networks.
Politics and Media
India must raise the tempo of showcasing and condemning Pakistan-sponsored terrorism more vehemently at international forums such as the United Nations, G20, BRCS, SCO and regional forums like SAARC and ASEAN to mount pressure on Pakistan to eschew exporting terrorism or get isolated. India should also endeavour to strengthen alliances with countries affected by terrorism to create a unified front against Pakistan’s proxy war policy and strategies.
Internal Stability
The speedy execution of multiple development projects in Kashmir is now distinctly visible and the youths who once seemed alienated and inimical towards the Army, are now emerging as a new vibrant society ready to charter their future integrated with India. No matter what the political demagogues claim and preach through their lectures and debates, the people see the ‘government’ only at the Thana, Tehsil and district levels. Therefore, there is a need to foster inclusive governance in Jammu and Kashmir to expose the narrative used by the terrorists to seek local support. Alongside development, there is a need to run information campaigns for educating the public about how terrorism has retarded progress and kept people deprived of their genuine dues in life. The Army and civil authorities must ensure that foolproof security is provided unobtrusively to the local informants because the killing of such faithful sources demotivates others from coming forward. There is a need to raise the tempo of educating the people by reviewing and recasting regular information campaigns highlighting the coming benefits of the development projects and public welfare schemes. Since the politicians have lost their credibility, positively inclined public figures from cinema, media, educational institutions and social activists should be projected to eloquently voice their ideas on the harms of violence and parochial ideologies.
Finally, the popular impression about the so-called decline of terrorist menace in the Kashmir Valley should not induce complacency in the Security Forces and the government. The kind of lethal weaponry and the audacious video-filming of terrorists ambushing an army vehicle and shooting a soldier on a road are the new competencies acquired by terrorists which call for an immediate review of military tactics and government policy. India’s approach to combating Pakistan-sponsored terrorism requires a multidimensional strategy that encompasses military offensive, financial countermeasures, political diplomacy, and internal security enhancements. Mere defensive posturing and reactive drills have failed to deter the terrorists who are hitting targets of their choice in their chosen ways. India can wrest the initiative from these terrorist groups and their sponsors only by imposing prohibitive costs on Pakistan. A concerted effort across all fronts from field level to political and diplomatic levels will ensure that India not only defends its sovereignty but also secures a future free from the scourge of terrorism.
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Karan Kharb is an Indian Army veteran who has been an instructor at the Indian Military Academy and served in the Special Forces. Author of five best-selling books, he is associated with India’s eminent think tanks and has addressed audiences at regional and national levels. He managed a Rehab NGO in Gujarat soon after the devastating earthquake in 2001; and was the founder Director of Jana Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) Kutch.