New Delhi [India], December 31 : It was a year India showed its military might, its technological prowess, the capability of its indigenous platforms and its resolve of zero tolerance to terrorism as it gave a befitting reply to Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, forcing the western neighbour to seek a ceasefire.
India struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Operation Sindoor on May 7 and effectively repelled Islamabad's subsequent escalation, pounding Pakistan airbases.
Experts said Operation Sindoor showed the world that India will take terror head-on, as also countries that are known for being fountainheads of terrorism and that India has now graduated from a posture of surgical retaliation to one of doctrinal deterrence, assuring retaliation to every proven act of cross-border terror.
Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon (retd), who has served eight tenures in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism operational areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, toldthat Air Defence has emerged as the new sword arm of modern-day war fighting.
He noted that despite the emergence of several newer realities in the Indian neighbourhood - from the Gen Z protest in Nepal, the developments in Bangladesh under Interim Government Advisor Muhummad Yunus and the deepening of ties between India and Afghanistan - what did not change over the decades is Pakistan's support to cross-border terrorism.
"Pakistan's only ambition in life is to keep India internally unstable, and as a result of that, the Pahalgam terror attack was carried out by Pakistan to divert attention away from their internal problems of ineffective politics, military corruption, economic meltdown and the failure of their diplomatic outreach, amongst other factors," he said.
"After carrying out the barbaric Pahalgam attack, Pakistan did not take into consideration that India today is not the India of yesterday. It's a new India, which is economically fourth-largest economy in the world, a military might, the largest democracy in the world with strong political will. Pakistan did not include the rise of India in their calculus of terror."
He emphasised that in case Pakistan tries anything again, "Operation Sindoor 2.0 will hit them even harder - not only militarily, but also economically, politically and diplomatically".
Lt Gen Dhillon, who has commanded operations 15 Corps (Chinar Corps) responsible for military operations on the Line of Control and within the Kashmir Valley during the Pulwama terror attack, Balakote air strikes and abrogation of Article 370, highlighted how Operation Sindoor set a new global benchmark and a new normal in the fight against terrorism.
He specifically highlighted the importance of Air Defence having emerged as the new sword arm of modern-day war fighting. He said that the emergence and use of newer technologies have changed the face of war. He spoke about the importance of evolving own tactics and strategies to align with the changing technologies in the entire spectrum of warfighting.
"Operation Sindoor 1.0 set new benchmarks in the international military strategies and military tactics. During earlier wars, the borders used to be crossed, the territory captured and the prisoners of war taken - which were the quantifiable parameters of victory. During 1971 Indo-Pak war, we liberated the whole of East Pakistan and took 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war - that established the quantified parameters of victory. Now during Operation SINDOOR, what we saw was that two nuclear powers came to war for the first time in the history of the world (if we do not count Operation Kargil or Operation Vijay which was a limited operation) and not a single soldier or a tank or a gun crossed the line of control or international boundary - this is a new face of future wars," he said.
"Air Defence emerged as the sword arm of the war fighting and played the major role - it defeated the Chinese radars, aircraft, missiles and drones, in addition to F-16s and the AWACS - these are the new benchmarks that have been set."
He said tomorrow's warfare is not going to be the traditional conventional trench warfare of the Second World War.
"It's neither going to be attrition warfare that we've seen in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Tomorrow's warfare is going to be dominated by air defence, electronic warfare, cyber warfare and space. It's going to be a non-contact warfare."
Expanding on the theme, he mentioned how wars will no longer be limited to the military domain.
"It's going to be fought in the economic domain; the domestic domain of disrupting the airlines, railways, electricity and banking grids. Destruction of onshore and offshore economic and military assets is going to be done through cyber, space, electronic and kinetic domains in stand-alone or overlapping operations. So future warfare is going to be different - swift, expensive, lethal and very telling," he said.
Speaking about the importance of the battle of narratives and perception management, he said, "Whether you won or lost a war is not going to be the only aspect - how you perceive it on social media and the media is going to be a parallel warfare, and India needs to gear up for this narrative warfare."
He suggested the need for a centralised, Integrated Information Centre for perception management based on truth and transparency.
Asked about how India's counter-terrorism doctrine has evolved over the last decade, he reiterated the parameters of India's policy against terrorism mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May shortly after Operation Sindoor.
Lt Gen Dhillon said that "in our counter-terrorism strategy, we are not going to differentiate between a terrorist and the organization he belongs to and the country supporting it- all three are terrorists and we will take necessary actions as per our national interests".
He underscored how Operation Sindoor showed to the world that India will take terror head-on and the countries that are known for being the fountainheads of terrorism in the world.
Expanding about the surgical precision of India's counter-terrorist operations and how they have ensured zero to minimal collateral damage, he said, "the world should draw the lessons and learn from the way we conduct our counter-terror operations".
Lt Gen Dhillon, who is also a noted author, said another lesson which the world can learn from India's military response "is to be precise with the selection of weapon systems".
"Ours are very ethical and moral counter-terrorism operation," he said.
Former High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria said Operation Sindoor was the most intense India-Pakistan conflict of the 21st century.
He noted that Operation Sindoor stood distinct when compared to India's previous responses to terrorism. It showcased the conventional power differential and India's growing technological edge.
"Op Sindoor was a full-spectrum, hi-tech offensive and defensive mission. Not a single man aircraft or a soldier crossed the border. It used drones, loitering munitions, electronic warfare, and layered air defences. All of this was pulled together by the IAF's Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). It was also a clear demonstration of indigenous (Aatmanirbhar) capabilities, integrating technologies obtained from global partners," Bisaria toldin an email interview.
"India made it clearcross-border terrorism will now be treated as an act of war, not just a diplomatic or policing issue. By hitting targets deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, India showed it won't stick to diplomatic protest or symbolic actions. Terrorism will be met with force wherever it emanates from," he said.
Bisaria noted that India's military response represented the latest phase in an evolving doctrine of what experts call 'Integrated Deterrence'a term borrowed and adapted from broader international security parlance in a nuclear environment, but often reshaped for the unique contours of the Indo-Pak relationship.
"Integrated Deterrence rests on a multi-pronged approach: military readiness, diplomatic pre-emption, economic levers, and informational control. It goes beyond reactive defence, incorporating 'proactive signalling' and 'layered coercion'. In Operation Sindoor, India demonstrated each element with clarity," Bisaria told ANI.
He also underlined how Operation Sindoor sent a strong political message.
"After the Pahalgam terror attack, the Prime Minister publicly linked that event to India's military response. This signalled a shift to a predictable doctrineterror attacks will have kinetic consequences. It aimed to restore deterrence by punishment. What was a posture with the ground strikes and air strikes has now solidified into a doctrine of assured response to cross-border terror."
The Former High Commissioner to Pakistan toldhow this suite of actions was a clear departure from India's previous posture of strategic restraint.
"India has now graduated from a posture of surgical retaliation to one of doctrinal deterrence, assuring retaliation to every proven act of cross-border terror, each to be treated as an act of war. These are not isolated actions, but elements of a comprehensive doctrine aimed at deterring and pre-empting Pakistan, shaping its behaviour over time."
He talked about the evolution of India's counter-terrorism doctrine over the last decade. Noting that till 2008, India mostly relied on diplomacy and internal security- using Police, intelligence, and laws like UAPA as the main tools, he said that a global naming and shaming of Pakistan for terrorism and an attempt to cobble up a global concert against terror was a diplomatic objective.
"This was clearly not enough. Starting with the 2016 surgical strikes and 2019 Balakot airstrikes, India began hitting terror camps directly. That changed the posture, which in 2025, after the Pahalgam attack, has become a doctrine of assured kinetic response to cross-border terrorism".
"India's approach is often seen as a balancestrong enough to deter, careful enough to avoid escalation. Targeting only terror infrastructure, not civilians or unrelated military assets, has set a strong example. This is particularly stark, given the grinding wars that the world is dealing with in West Asia and in Ukraine," Bisaria added.
Bisaria, who held various positions, including High Commissioner to Canada, in his diplomatic career, highlighted how the shift from being a victim to being a responder has caught the world's attentionespecially in a nuclear-armed region like South Asia.
"India must do this exercise even better, particularly in global media where Pakistan often moves swiftly with the first set of lies," he said.
The overall politico-military objective of Operation Sindoor was to punish Pakistan for fighting a proxy war. India demonstrated its military capability, national resolve, morality and political acumen, and the country's military leadership demonstrated maturity and strategic wisdom.
India is boosting its indigenous military capability. India's defence exports are also rapidly expanding and have reached Rs 23,500 crore.
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