Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’

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A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.

To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.

Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?

It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or...

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