India vows to punish Pakistan after the latest terrorist attack
With an election looming and public anger feverish, restraint will be difficult
“IT’S TIME to repay Pakistan in its own coin,” snarls India’s rumpled but brilliant national-security adviser, plotting vengeance for a terrorist attack. Soon after, in this season’s runaway hit film, “Uri: The Surgical Strike”, muscled Indian commandos resoundingly smite the enemy. As in Bollywood, so, perhaps, in real life. After a Pakistan-based jihadist group claimed responsibility for a suicide-bombing on February 14th that killed some 40 Indian paramilitary police, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, promised a “jaw-breaking” response. Suspense is mounting as to how and when, rather than if, India plans to punish Pakistan.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Modi’s jaw-breaking threats”
Asia February 23rd 2019
From the February 23rd 2019 edition
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