India mourns the loss of innocent lives in the gruesome terrorist attack that took place in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on April 22. It is difficult to comment on the authenticity of a social media statement circulated by the so-called “The Resistance Front”, a fig leaf known to be used by the Pakistani terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba to obfuscate its involvement. However, the participation of Pakistani terrorists in the atrocity is an established fact.

Following the changes introduced in the constitutional status of J&K on August 5, 2019, the attendant scaling up of security arrangements and the ceasefire along the Line of Control that has largely been holding since early 2021, there was a decline in terrorist violence in the Valley, notwithstanding occasional attacks on security forces in the Rajouri-Poonch region and on migrant labourers from other parts of India in south Kashmir. By and large, there had been a marked decline in civilian casualties, leading to a revival of tourism and the impression of normalcy having returned. That superficial calm has now been rudely shattered.

The seeming return of normalcy in Kashmir had coincided with a downward spiral in Pakistan’s political, economic and diplomatic fortunes. In the political arena, an election manifestly rigged by the military establishment to keep the main Opposition party and its leader out of power has led to the installation of arguably one of the weakest civilian governments in the country’s history and to an ever-enlarging army footprint in civilian affairs. The economic situation remains dire, with poverty and unemployment stalking the land,........

© Indian Express