5 min readAug 2, 2026 07:18 PM IST First published on: Aug 2, 2026 at 07:18 PM ISTOn July 22, terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba proxy, The Resistance Front, attacked a group of policemen in Anantnag, killing one of them. Nine days later, the same group killed two labourers from Chhattisgarh working in a brick kiln in Kulgam. These terrorist attacks are warning signals to India from a deeply frustrated Pakistani military establishment which holds India and the Afghan Taliban responsible for the activities of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These groups have demonstrated their ability to strike the security forces and sensitive targets, especially in Balochistan, almost at will.In a media briefing on July 31, Director General (DG), Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry admitted that Pakistan has lost 303 soldiers and 194 law enforcement personnel in anti-TTP and BLA operations since the beginning of this year. While he emphasised the heroic work of the army, he did not, obviously deliberately, refer to the week-long sit-in, beginning July 9, of the families of police personnel who were killed in TTP attacks in the Quetta area in early July.AdvertisementThe families refused to bury their dead till the Balochistan government agreed to appoint a Judicial Commission to examine the security lapses that had led to the massacre of the policemen. While this is not the first time a commission has been appointed for such a purpose, each one has been galling to the army. This one would have been particularly so because Field Marshal Asim Munir has been busy mediating global peace while some important segments are losing confidence in his force’s ability to provide security in Baluchistan.Chaudhry reiterated Pakistan’s tired charge of an Indian and Afghan Taliban nexus for assisting the TTP and BLA in carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. What was new, however, was his reminder to the Afghan Taliban of the Quran’s teaching to Muslims: “Iman wale ko chhod kar kafiron ko dost na banaa”. This was a reference to the Quran’s Surah Al-Iman’s Ayat 28. Many Muslim scholars refute Chaudhry’s interpretation. Chaudhry did not reflect at all on the fact that despite Pakistan’s assistance to the Afghan Taliban, the interim Afghan authorities found the neighbour’s approach so hostile to Afghanistan’s interests that relations have soured completely between them. Also, no Islamic state follows Chaudhry’s interpretation in its interstate ties. Indeed, it would be pertinent for Indian analysts and scholars to draw the world’s attention to the distortions which are being introduced in Islam’s name by the Pakistan army.Also Read | Santiago to Shopian and Delhi — pellet guns in crowd controlThe early July attacks in Baluchistan, in particular, have put Munir on the spot. While he has been able to bomb Afghanistan and has squeezed them on transit, he is in no position to risk a terrorist attack which crosses India’s red lines and compels a major kinetic response. While the Iran war is ongoing and its extreme negative consequences are being felt all across the world, any adventurism by Munir will end all the goodwill he earned through his mediation efforts, even though the intransigence of the warring parties has now overtaken those efforts.AdvertisementMunir, especially as he became chief of defence forces last year, has to answer to the army garrisons and members of the security establishment about the reasons why, as a “mard-e-momin”, he is allowing India not only to make Pakistan’s western border insecure but also to make unprecedented trouble in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. That is what Chaudhry implied during his press conference. He is, therefore, in a very difficult spot. He can no longer avoid resuming terrorist actions in J&K, and yet he has to carefully calibrate them so that the security situation in the Union Territory deteriorates but not to the extent that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is provoked into taking kinetic action. Hence, Pakistan’s concerted efforts at increasing the number of terrorist attacks should be anticipated.In addition to taking steps to meet Pakistan’s renewed terrorist threat by strengthening its defences, India should caution the major powers to restrain Pakistan. It should also reiterate its decision that there will be no bilateral engagement unless Pakistan abandons terrorism.The writer is a former diplomat