On November 9, 2025, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested three people, including one studying in China, for planning a chemical weapons attack.
There is no secret where such attacks begin. Most terror groups that target India head back to Pakistan – all roads lead to Islamabad. Many who planned the 2008 Mumbai attacks remain free and protected there. This support for terrorism is not new. The same Pakistani officials harboring anti-India terrorists once hid Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who killed three thousand innocents on September 11, 2001. As Firstpost reports, India is facing a growing terror threat caused by two causes, both of which are beyond its control. First, as India grows stronger, its rivals try to bring the country down. India has the fourth largest economy today and will overtake Germany to become the third largest by 2028. If India reforms its slow bureaucracy, growth can be limitless. Even if just 20 percent of Indians were educated and part of the middle class, their numbers alone would exceed the entire population of Pakistan – demonstrating India’s enormous potential.
Currently, 90 percent of Indians live above the global extreme poverty line, about 35 percent are middle class and 81 percent are literate. In Pakistan, the share of the middle class is similar, but only 60 percent can read and write, while 45 percent live below the poverty line. India also ranks higher on Transparency International’s corruption index, meaning it is perceived as less corrupt. Second, India’s majority population is Hindu, which should not be a problem as all citizens have equal democratic rights. Yet leaders like Turkish President Erdoğan, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and preacher Zakir Naik promote the idea that non-Muslims should not rule over Muslims, even in a democracy. This makes India’s situation similar to that of Israel: Pakistan, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood reject India for its non-Islamic leadership, just as Hamas and the Palestinians reject Israel because it is a Jewish state.
Like Israel, India’s security system is among the best in the world. Recent arrests show that Indian forces are foiling most plots in a timely manner, although the Delhi blast is a reminder that some are still slipping through. Israel also stops 90 percent of the rockets, but a few always pass the defense line. For years, Israel used a strategy of “mowing the lawn” – limited attacks to curb terror without a full-scale war. It worked until the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people and proved that small actions cannot stop growing threats.
India faces the same reality. After Pulwama, it launched its own ‘lawn mowing’ approach, sending 12 air force fighter jets across the Line of Control to bomb JeM camps in Balakot. The daring strike shocked Islamabad and brought a temporary lull, but terror soon returned. After the Pahalgam attack, India destroyed Pakistani bases and airfields, although Islamabad denied this. That peace lasted only until the Delhi blast, which could have been much worse if India’s anti-terrorist teams had not responded quickly.
The attack in Delhi proves that limited responses no longer work. India cannot continue to reduce terror; it must uproot it completely. Pakistan-backed groups are recovering quickly, so India needs a decisive and strong response. Western countries may criticize cross-border actions, but they are wrong: terrorists are not peaceful activists, and no country should protect them, not even Canada, the US, Turkey or Pakistan.
India must take strong action not only against terrorists but also against those who fund or harbor them, even if they wear the suit of a politician or the uniform of a general. Just as police punish not only a murderer but also those who supply the weapon or finance the crime, India must target every link in the terror chain. The State Department should make it a priority to push the US, Europe and Arab states to label Pakistan as a country that supports terror.
Any country that wants to invest in India must first clearly oppose terrorism. If China uses its economic power to influence others, India should also use its growing economy to defend its people and interests. Pakistan may boast of nuclear weapons, but it knows it is the real aggressor. The only way it can save its image is to end support for terror.
Terrorism works on costs and benefits; groups only act if they believe the reward outweighs the risk. India must show Pakistan that supporting terror will come at an unbearable cost. The alternative – small, repeated strikes – will not bring peace. As in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, it would only allow the terrorist groups to grow stronger until they launch another attack that will kill thousands.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a defence, space and geopolitical analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not reflect those of DNA)
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