Iโve just listened to the first half-hour of Op Sindoor, the latest Brown Pundits Browncast featuring Amey, Poulasta, and Omar. The full episode runs over 90 minutes; Iโll be reflecting on the rest in due course. For now, some thoughts on the opening segment, which focuses on the recent terror attack in Pahalgam and its aftermath.
๐งจ The Attack Itself: Pahalgam as a National Trauma
The episode begins by recounting the massacre in Pahalgam, Kashmirโa tourist meadow turned execution ground. Twenty-six people, most of them honeymooning Hindus, were murdered after being identified through religious markers: circumcision, Kalma recitations, names. The hosts donโt shy away from calling it what it is: a targeted Islamist attack. The group responsible, the TRF (The Resistance Front), is introduced as a Lashkar-e-Taiba cutout, designed to launder Pakistan-backed militancy through a local Kashmiri lens.
There is a palpable sense of cumulative fatigue in how the Indian speakers describe itโnot as an aberration, but as part of a 30-year continuum of such violence. The emotional register is high, but justified. The use of plain terms like terrorists over euphemisms such as militants or gunmen reflects a long-standing frustration with how such attacks are framed in international discourse.
๐ค ย Modi, Nawaz, and the Civ-Mil Waltz Continue reading ๐ฎ๐ณOp Sindoor: A Podcast on Pahalgam, Pakistan, and the Limits of Peace