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The Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that left 26 civilians dead is a deliberate escalation by Pakistan in view of the fact that there had never been an incident in Jammu and Kashmir where such a large number of tourists had been killed, Lieutenant General DS Hooda (Retd), former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Northern Command of the Indian Army, said on Sunday.

Speaking at an event organized by The Indian Express, Lt Gen Hooda, who spearheaded the surgical strikes across the LoC in 2016, noted that the attack was meticulously planned, including the selection of the place of attack knowing there was no security presence and that the forces would take time to react due to the difficult terrain.

"The planning has been done at a fairly high level and when I’m saying a fairly high level, you know, as the government is also saying, the fingers are pointing at Pakistan," he said.

Lt Gen Hooda also noted that the targeted killing of Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir — separating Hindus and Muslims, keeping women aside, asking people to recite the Kalma — were all deliberate actions, but hardly the most surprising aspect of the Pahalgam terror attack.

The attack, he said, was surprising in terms of the selection of its target. "We had been seeing some indication that Pakistan was stepping up its attempt to increase terrorist activities in J&K. We also got a sense that people who were coming in were much better trained. They were all mostly foreign terrorists. Traditionally, you haven’t seen tourists getting attacked because it’s something that really hits the local economy," Lt Gen Hooda said.

Asked whether the Pahalgam attack flew in the face of Centre's narrative of restoration of normalcy in Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370, Lt Gen Hooda said that there was a need to take "nuanced view" despite indications that the government's claims were misplaced.

"In the short term, it would appear that government claims of normalcy were not correct because one indicator that the government always gave for normalcy was the large number of tourists arriving in the state. Now with bookings being cancelled, tourists leaving in large numbers, it would appear in the short term that what the government was claiming was not correct. But we also have to take a slightly nuanced view. The fact is that overall violence levels were reducing. That did not mean that there was no terrorist at all," he said.

Lt Gen Hooda further said that one horrific incident does not automatically imply that Jammu and Kashmir is going to descend into chaos.

"Although we’ve had this one horrific incident, doesn’t mean that J&K is going to suddenly descend into lawlessness and everything that had happened has got completely overturned. We also have to be careful not to reinforce the terrorist narrative and say, oh, everything is bad," he cautioned.

Discussing the military options available for India against Pakistan and its terrorists, Lt Gen Hooda said that use of ground forces as well as air strikes are on the table, though not exactly in the manner carried out in 2016 and 2019.

"It isn't as if the use of ground forces is completely ruled out. You can use it in different ways, have different kind of targets. I know the Line of Control is sort of heavily guarded, but the terrain is such that you can find vulnerable points, vulnerable targets. You have standoff weapons where you don’t necessarily need to cross over very deep into Pakistani airspace to carry out strikes. In fact, some targets can be taken down even from your side of the LoC. There is the use of attack drones that can be made. There are different options," he added.

Lt Gen Hooda said that India may not be looking at an escalation to the extent of initiating a war with Pakistan on the international border. "The idea would be to send out a credible message saying that if you continue with this, there will be some level of punishment that will come on you. If at all there is military force applied, it would be limited in scale and scope, while being prepared for a level of escalation and seeing how at each level of escalation you could come out on top," he added.

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