Exclusive Book Excerpt from Operation SINDOOR by Lt Gen KJS Dhillon – Pulwama to Pahalgam

I saw the situation first-hand in February 2019 when I took over command of the Chinar Corps just four days prior to the suicide car bomb attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy, killing forty CRPF bravehearts. The security situation prevailing in February 2019 was quite challenging, with all the indicators mentioned above telling a story in themselves.

The turnaround happened when the jeM module, the perpetrators of the Pulwama car bomb suicide attack, was neutralized within 100 hours of the incident. Security forces, acting as per a well-worked-out plan, started targeting the terrorist leadership, bringing the situation to a point where no one was prepared to take over the leadership of terrorist tanzeems within the Kashmir Valley.

These forces, including the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP), CRPF, intelligence agencies, civil administration and all the other wings of the security apparatus operating in the Kashmir Valley, carried out synergized, hard counterterrorist operations on the one hand while simultaneously undertaking winning hearts and minds (WHAM) initiatives on the other.

The biggest contribution in bringing about this turnaround, especially during the period after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in August 2019, came from the local Kashmiri people, who saw through Pakistan's agenda and realized that Pakistan could do nothing when the abrogation happened. This realization, coupled with the government's active and pro-people initiatives, ensured that the common Kashmiri became a stakeholder in the peace process.

Peace was achieved as a result of the sacrifice of thousands of security forces personnel and local innocent Kashmiris over more than three decades. Having been the beneficiaries of the dividends of peace and seeing a better future for their children with a good, uninterrupted education and resultantly better job opportunities, a common Kashmiri did not want to go back to those dark days ever again.

I visited Kashmir along with my wife from 18 April to 21 April 2025 and returned via a late evening flight from Srinagar Airport on 21 April, just an evening prior to the unfortunate Pahalgam incident that happened on 22 April 2025. I was extremely happy to see all the tourist spots buzzing, the markets full of customers and the farmers getting good prices for their produce. The most heartening piece of information that I received from those responsible for providing the security was that, in the last two years, not a single Kashmiri youth had joined the terrorist tanzeems from Pulwama district, which was a hotbed of terrorism and terror recruitment only a couple of years ago.

I mention this just to put the record straight on the situation prior to the Pahalgam terror attack, which we will discuss in greater detail in the succeeding paragraphs and chapters.

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Credit: Penguin Veer by Penguin Random House