Washington DC [US], May 17 : Amid tensions between India and Pakistan, Aparna Pande, Research Fellow and Director of the India Initiative at the Hudson Institute, said that tensions between the two countries follow a familiar pattern that has been "on repeat" since 1989. She emphasised that every few years, a terrorist attack, often in Kashmir, triggers a fresh wave of heightened tensions.
She noted that periodic terror attacks often trigger escalations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Pande also pointed out that since 2016, India's response to such attacks has changed.
In an interview with ANI, Pande said, "This is a cycle on repeat, a film which has been happening every few years since 1989. Every few years, there's a terror attack, primarily in Kashmir. Tensions escalate. Because they are nuclear-armed neighbours, the world gets involved and seeks to de-escalate. From 2016, the only change has been that India has decided to respond to these attacks rather than absorb them and use strategic restraint."
She added, "In 2016, 2019 and 2025, we saw Indian responses in different degrees. India's desire has always been to use a punitive response that is not escalatory. However, when Pakistan responded this time, it did lead to an escalation, this time more than in 2019. Then the global community, especially the United States, came in."
She further said that India's response to terrorism from Pakistan has shifted since 2016, highlighting that instead of relying only on diplomacy, India has started taking direct action against terror groups across the border.
On being asked about India's response to Pakistan's terrorism, Pande told ANI, "It shows that since 2016, India is no longer using the old policy, which used to be strategic restraint or diplomatic measures to target or isolate Pakistan and to get the global community to condemn Pakistan on terrorism."
"From 2016, India's policy appears to be that. India can strike at terror groups, and there is a space for escalation on a conventional level without it becoming war. Secondly, India will respond to any terror attack by targeting the terror infrastructure across the border in Pakistan. Third, the Indian government, the top brass of the military, is planning and strategising for how India needs to prepare for future terror attacks, because the China-Pakistan relationship is deeply integrated, which means that India needs to be able to integrate its air defence system to be ready for the next war on all borders," Pande said.
India carried out precision strikes through Operation Sindoor on May 7 on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in response to the Pahalgam terror attack last month, in which 26 people were killed.
India also effectively responded to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases.
India carried out surgical strikes in 2016 on terror launch pads across LoC and an aerial attack on a terror camp in Pakistan in 2019 in response to ghastly terror attacks.
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