The Pahalgam attack calls for sober accountability not blood-thirsty revenge

The horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir—which claimed at least 28 lives and left dozens critically injured—deserves our full and unequivocal condemnation. The massacre of unarmed civilians in cold blood cannot be justified for any political cause.

This tragedy demands far more than the predictable rhetoric about “bringing perpetrators to justice” or hollow invocations of national unity. To reduce this to a matter of “revenge against Pakistan” is to miss the point entirely—and risks repeating a cycle that has already failed, both as a deterrent and in protecting Indian lives.

In the aftermath of such attacks, India often witnesses a dangerous surge of inflammatory speech and misinformation, such as during the 2019 Pulwama-Balakot saga. Hashtags such as #AvengePulwama and calls for “blood for blood” dominated political discourse and social-media feeds at the time. While this rhetoric may satisfy a thirst for vengeance, it does nothing to address the systemic failures that enabled the attack. Worse, it deflects from the urgent need for introspection and reform—channeling public anger outward, while absolving those responsible for critical security lapses. This exposes the dangerous limitations of a strategy grounded in emotional reprisal rather than sober, institutional accountability.

Such responses also play directly into the hands of militant groups, whose strategies often rely on provoking overreactions that deepen polarisation and undermine moderate voices. Choosing to respond with predictable military strikes or harsh crackdowns would serve only to validate the militants’ narrative and alienate the very populations whose cooperation is essential for effective counterterrorism.