New Delhi, Sept. 13 -- For India's counter-terrorism and military response doctrine, the September 2016 Uri surgical strike is now believed to be a watershed moment. This cross-border raid in retaliation to a terror attack on Indian soil soon heralded a gradual, but noticeable, change in India's playbook for dealing with similar Pakistan-sponsored heinous activities.

In hindsight, the Uri attack and surgical strike ignited a reorientation that moved India's doctrine away from its habitual restraint and towards calibrated, visible retaliation.

The evolution that began from the Uri surgical strikes in 2016, through the Pulwama-Balakot sequence in 2019, and the various thwarted infiltration attempts from 2020-24, has crystallised during Op...