India, April 22 -- Every so often, an attack doesn't just kill people. It exposes something. It reveals, with brutal clarity, a gap that was there all along - in policy, in practice, in assumption. The Pahalgam attack of April 22, 2025, was that kind of event.

Twenty-six civilians were killed in an open meadow while on holiday. What followed was not just grief and outrage - though there was plenty of both. It was a hard, uncomfortable reckoning with how India secures its most vulnerable spaces, how it thinks about cross-border terrorism, and how far it is willing to go in response.

The answer to that last question, at least, came quickly.

From deterrence to compellence

For decades, India's counter-terrorism posture toward Pakistan res...