Time to restart Operation Sindoor
With the recent terrorist blasts in Delhi and Nowgam, India must launch Operation Sindoor 2.0 against Pakistan-based cross-border Islamic terrorism
A t 6:52 PM on November 10, 2025, a slow-moving Hyundai i20 car exploded at a busy traffic intersection near the Red Fort in Delhi, killing at least 15 innocent civilians and injuring more than 20 others. The findings by Delhi Police clearly indicated that the blast was a suicide jihadi attack. On November 12, 2025, the Indian government designated the incident as a terrorist act. Further forensic reports indicated that the blast is suspected to have been caused by ammonium nitrate fuel oil and other explosives in the car, which triggered a fire that damaged multiple nearby vehicles. Investigators later traced the car used in the explosion to Umar Mohammed, a Pulwama-based doctor, who worked at the infamous Al-Falah University in Faridabad and had links to individuals arrested during the earlier police raids conducted in the city which led to the capture of more than 2,900 kg of explosives. Subsequent DNA analysis of the human remains found in the vehicle identified Umar as the suicide bomber who was driving the car. Based on evidence recovered during the investigation, he was part of a larger network consisting of several doctors from Faridabad and Kashmir, with links to foreign terrorist handlers in Pakistan and Turkey. Just a few days after the blast in Delhi, a video was released in which the suicide bomber was seen glorifying death in the name of religion.
Moreover, on November 14, 2025, a massive explosion ripped through the Nowgam Police Station in the outskirts of Srinagar when around 360 kg of explosives seized during the raids on Faridabad-based terror module, went off. The huge blast killed nine people and injured 32 others which included a number of Jammu and Kashmir police personnel, forensic experts and photographers. The accidental explosion reportedly happened when the forensic experts were trying to extract samples from the unstable explosives dumped in the police station’s parking area. Hence, the combined casualty figures of Indian citizens caused by the blast in Delhi and the accidental explosion in Nowgam has reached 24. The number of casualties caused by the Faridabad terror module is almost equivalent to the number of deaths caused by the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 22, 2025 when 26 Indian citizens were brutally massacred by Islamic jihadi terrorists sponsored by Pakistan. Interrogation of the arrested terrorists revealed that the jihadis of the Faridabad terror module were planning to carry suicide bombings and massacre people across multiple Indian cities on the anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition.
To add to this, the Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) foiled a mass murder type terrorist attack when it uncovered a module liked to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). The terrorists involved were a Hyderabad-based doctor- Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed and two of his accomplices. planned to produce the deadly toxin ricin for mass casualty attacks on crowded public places in Indian cities like Lucknow, Delhi and Ahmedabad. According to Gujarat ATS DIG Sunil Joshi, “To execute a major terrorist attack, Saiyed, who earned his MBBS degree in China, has been preparing a highly lethal poison named ricin”. The investigation revealed the suspects conducted reconnaissance of potential targets and that weapons were supplied via drones from Pakistan. This was a new form of bioterrorism sponsored by Pakistan, never before seen in the Indian subcontinent. These recent terrorist incidents prove that the terror network in Pakistan is yet to be completely dismantled.
Bleeding India with a thousand cuts
As per SATP data, 3590 Indian security forces personnel have been martyred by terrorists between the year 2000 and 2024, whereas 13,321 terrorists have been slaughtered during the same period. Roughly more than 41,000 civilian deaths have also been caused by terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir between 1990 and 2017. And this death toll excludes the death toll of Kashmiri pandits massacred during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This clearly shows the intensity of the conflict caused by Pakistani military’s “Bleed India with a thousand cuts” doctrine. Islamic separatist terrorists also incite violence against the local Kashmiri populace.
After the Taliban victory in the Soviet-Afghan War, Mujahideen terrorists, under the Operation Tupac with the aid of Pakistan, slowly infiltrated Kashmir with the goal of spreading a radical Islamist ideology to wage jihad against India in the region. USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees separatist militant groups in Kashmir. Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf in October 2014 openly stated during a TV interview: “We have source (in Kashmir) besides the (Pakistan) army…People in Kashmir are fighting against (India). We just need to incite them.”
All these terror attacks, and now the current ones by Islamist fanatics had only one modus operandi- to initiate a massacre for instilling fear amongst non-Muslims, be it local Kashmiris or mainland Indians, with Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) footprints clearly and distinctively visible in the plots.
Overwhelming success of Op Sindoor
After the Pahalgam massacre, in the wee hours of May 7, 2025, India started an ambitious military campaign under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The Indian Air Force with the help of Dassault Rafale fighter jets armed with Scalp missiles and Hammer bombs launched airstrikes on nine targets consisting of terrorist training camps, Islamic seminaries and madrasas located deep inside Pakistan and PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) leading to the death of more than 100 Islamic jihadi terrorists (possibly around 170). The military campaign christened as Operation Sindoor also witnessed the Indian military launching kamikaze drone strikes and cruise missile strikes on Pakistan’s air defence units using Israeli made IAI Harop loitering munitions and Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from Sukhoi-30 combat aircrafts the next day, after Pakistan escalated the conflict by launching missiles and Turkish drones targeting civilian areas in Jammu and Punjab. Hostilities reached a temporary pause on May 10, 2025 after a US-backed ceasefire proposal was sent by the Pakistani DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) to the Indian DGMO and it was accepted by New Delhi.
But by the time the ceasefire came into effect (5PM IST on May 10,2025), India had already extracted a heavy price from Pakistan by destroying at least 20 percent of the Islamic nation’s air defence assets and badly crippling its offensive aerial capabilities. The damage done to Pakistani military infrastructure was tremendous and the terrorist state was literally left exposed naked and bare under the glare of international surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, leaving everyone to see and verify the evidences themselves. Unlike the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, this time the Pakistanis had nothing to hide, including their widespread global embarrassment.
Time for Operation Sindoor 2.0
India’s daring commando raids inside PoK in the aftermath of the 2016 Uri attack, the 2019 Balakot airstrike and Operation Sindoor executed in May 2025 has set a new strategic benchmark for cross-border military actions by India against state-sponsored terrorism. The Delhi blast, Nowgam explosion and the ricin-terror plot recently unveiled in Gujarat shows that the anti-India terror network in Pakistan is yet to be fully uprooted. This certainly calls for further and harsher Indian military actions inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and mainland Pakistan, much higher in intensity than the first phase of Operation Sindoor which lasted from May 7 to May 10, 2025.
There are reports that since the first phase of Operation Sindoor ended, Pakistan has now rebuilt many of the destroyed airbases and has also reactivated the terrorist launchpads. Border Security Force’s Deputy Inspector General- Vikram Kunwar has officially stated at a recent press conference that 72 Islamic terrorist launchpads are now active near the International Border and Line of Control (LoC). These easy targets need to be eliminated at the earliest by FPV drone strikes, guided artillery bombardment and loitering munition hits.
By activating the next phase of Operation Sindoor, India should execute massive kamikaze drone and cruise missile strikes crippling Pakistan’s air defence infrastructure and airbases. The SEAD (suppression of enemy air defences) and DEAD (destruction of enemy air defences) will leave a wide and safe passage for Indian fighter jets to launch heavy air-to-ground missile strikes from standoff ranges for taking out high-value terror targets deep inside Pakistan. The SEAD and DEAD operations must be simultaneously supported by intense loitering munition and cruise missile strikes against Pakistan’s mobile missile launchers, warships, and heavy artillery positions, thereby eroding the terrorist nation’s capability to launch any counterstrike against India.
Bleeding Pakistan with a million cuts
A barrage of Indian military strikes deep inside Pakistan should be the new normal after every act of terrorism in India. If Pakistan still wants to escalate the situation further, India should follow through with decapitating strikes taking out high-profile Pakistani military officials associated with the incumbent regime in Islamabad. Recently, Asim Munir, the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, threatened to attack India’s Jamnagar oil refinery in case of a future conflict with India. Well, if the Islamic state stoops so low by even attempting such a misadventure, India should launch counterstrike barrages targeting Karachi Port, Lahore Metro Rail, airport terminals, railheads, bridges, thermal and hydroelectric powerplants, and dams inside Pakistan. Every Indian military action against Pakistan should be executed with jaw breaking force, without the fear of how the future unfolds.
Diplomatic outreach
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the Jewish nation literally cleansed the Gaza strip of Hamas terrorists through kinetic action and ground operations. Soon after, Israel went after Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Finally, Israel chose to hit Iran by launching a 12-day war from June 13 to June 24, 2025. Israeli aerial strikes, kamikaze drone hits and cruise missile bombardment literally pushed back Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes by many years. The Israelis agreed to a ceasefire, but only after most of the objectives of the military operation were met. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t relent under international pressure while keeping Israel’s national interests over everything.
Currently, US amphibious forces supported by a carrier-strike group are positioned in the seas off Venezuela’s coastline, ready to take down Nicolas Maduro’s communist dictatorial regime any moment. US President Donald Trump didn’t give a second thought on what international critics will say on this.
Moreover, Pakistan has the audacity to deliberately launch regular aerial strikes in Afghanistan, killing innocent civilians, as observed recently. Just a few days ago, the Pakistani establishment also proved how low it can stoop when it deliberately sent rotten and expired food packets disguised as humanitarian aid to flood-hit Sri Lanka. This was intentionally done by the Pakistani government to contaminate the food of Sinhalese Buddhists and Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus, just because of Pakistan’s hatred against non-Muslims.
Hence, during any future conflict with Pakistan, the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should stand firm against possible international criticism. The government should adopt a clear “don’t care” attitude against the so-called nagging peaceniks. Neither Israel respected Iran’s sovereignty, nor the United States of America endorsed Venezuela’s territorial integrity while executing offensive military operations in their supreme national interest. Pakistan’s inhuman acts against the Afghans and Sri Lankans have no justification either. Hence, the international community has no right and no authority to lecture India on world peace, especially at a time when innocent Indian citizens are being murdered in cold blood by Pakistan-sponsored leaches. This must be outrightly quoted during India’s diplomatic outreach during Operation Sindoor 2.0.
Expediting police modernisation
The Delhi blast and Nowgam explosion have exposed glaring loopholes in India’s internal security and intelligence gathering apparatus. The much awaited and proposed NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre) must be operationalised at the earliest without any further delay. Moreover, the union and respective state governments should equip police forces across the country with cutting-edge surveillance gear including AI-enabled drones. India’s police forces need tens of thousands, or possibly even lakhs of such smart electronic surveillance gadgets up in the air for tracking suspicious movements of terrorists across every patch of urban and rural landscape. Every small town, large city, and the suburbs of big cities need to have a dense mesh of tens of thousands of AI-enabled all-weather CCTV cameras with face-recognition technology, high-definition recording and thermal imaging capability. AI-based electronic surveillance must be effectively and seamlessly integrated with the national intelligence grid (NATGRID) and local police forces. Helicopter-based surveillance and policing (just like in American cities) should be introduced in the metropolitan regions of India without any further delay. A robust and comprehensive homeland security mechanism must be in place.
Striking without further delay
As of now, the onus lies on the union government to eliminate the terror threats emanating from across the border in Pakistan. The recent assembly elections in various states have proved that the proletariat of the nation has full faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decisive leadership. It is not important what Farooq Abdullah says about India’s decisive action against the Asim Munir-led Islamic terrorist regime in Islamabad. It is time for the government to live up to the people’s expectations by initiating stringent military action against cross-border jihadi terrorism. Operation Sindoor must be resumed without an iota of doubt. Supreme national interest is above everything!
(The author is a Delhi NCR-based defence journalist)
