Given the past experiences, after the terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama in 2016 and 2019, India’s response to Pahalgam attack may come any time, how soon or late is a matter to be decided by the leadership, taking all pros and cons into consideration. This particular aspect invokes the strikes against Pakistan. This time, some action has already been taken; the wait is on for, what next, when, where and how.

Fundamental challenge is far bigger this time than 2016 and 2019. Pahalgam massacre was a terror attack with a difference. It happened when the nation had taken normalcy-cum-peace in Kashmir for granted, and there were many reasons for that – the Valley had not seen the terror attack of 22/4 scale for years. Locals’ participation in making peace a new norm had boosted confidence of the tourists. They had visited in large numbers in the past few years.

The whole narrative focused on future developments in infrastructure and efforts to increase opportunities for the youth to grow in positive direction. It was presumed that the whole thing was irreversible as the abrogation of Article 370 had worked wonders in the lives of the ordinary people in Kashmir. It was believed that terrorism has not been held in abeyance but scrapped.

I am not going by the timeframe that surgical strike across the LoC came 10 days after Uri attack on September 18, in which 20 soldiers were killed, or the aerial strike deep inside in Balakot of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26, 2019. That was 12 days after Pulwama........

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