Pakistan’s X Corps and the lingering query of a terror axis on Indian soil

A responsible thoughts can by no means relaxation simple—and Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif may simply have confirmed. And not using a single official accusation from India concerning Pakistan’s function within the Pahalgam terror assault, Asif sprinted to Reside 92, a Pakistani information channel, to difficulty a frantic denial: “Pakistan has no reference to this. That is all home-grown… There may be completely no connection to us.”

Click on right here for Pahalgam terror assault LIVE updates

To any rational observer, this knee-jerk response wasn’t a defence. It was a confession. A pre-emptive rebuttal in absence of an allegation is just not exoneration—it reeks of guilt. Why the panic, in case your conscience is clear?

Mass homicide within the meadow

On Tuesday, 28 harmless lives had been extinguished when terrorists opened hearth on a bunch of vacationers at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam in south Kashmir. Dozens extra had been grievously injured. The Resistance Entrance (TRF), a self-declared offshoot of the infamous Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed accountability.

Let there be no illusions. The Resistance Entrance is a façade—an alias for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the blood-drenched brainchild of Pakistan’s deep state. The hyperlink isn’t speculative. It’s confirmed. Arms, funding, coaching, communication channels, secure havens—all facilitated straight by Pakistan’s military-intelligence advanced. It isn’t a murmur within the corridors of intelligence—it’s an open reality.

The identical Pakistan Military, which as soon as fed and nurtured terror teams like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed for strategic positive factors in Kashmir, now finds itself beneath siege in its personal yard. In Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, troopers are being slaughtered by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan—the very Frankenstein’s monster they dropped at life.

But in Kashmir, Pakistan has continued its so-called ‘coverage of a thousand cuts’. The army stays the first sponsor of terrorism, funding, coaching and launching terrorists throughout the Line of Management (LoC). Over a long time, Pakistan has institutionalised its cold-blooded tactic of utilizing terrorism as an instrument of state coverage.

Khawaja Asif’s nervous outburst, relatively than deflecting blame, shines a lightweight on the rot festering inside the Pakistani institution. The blood on the grassy meadows of Pahalgam has fingerprints throughout it—they usually lead straight to Rawalpindi.

The LoC: A short lived divide-line Pakistan sees as terror freeway

Pakistan Military formations alongside the LoC and Worldwide Border should not passive observers. They’re accomplices. Intelligence intercepts and ground-level surveillance have repeatedly proven Pakistani troopers offering masking hearth to terrorists making an attempt infiltration. They know what they’re doing. These aren’t rogue parts. These are brothers-in-arms working in unison.

Notably regarding are the districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. These areas kind the frontline of infiltration makes an attempt and are chronically focused by Pakistan-backed teams. Which Pakistani Military items are serving to these terrorists? All indicators level to the twelfth Infantry Division stationed in Muzaffarabad, throughout the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Geography of blood

Pahalgam, nestled in Anantnag district in south Kashmir, lies comparatively near the LoC, notably the stretch reverse Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Neelum Valley and Muzaffarabad. Because the crow flies, Muzaffarabad lies simply 85 to 100 kilometres from the vacationer city the place civilians had been gunned down in chilly blood.

This isn’t an unintentional closeness. It’s a geographic artery by means of which terror is pumped into India. The twelfth Infantry Division of the Pakistan Military, working beneath the infamous X Corps based mostly in Rawalpindi, oversees a major stretch of the LoC. Brigades stationed close to key areas like Athmuqam and Kel within the Neelum Valley are operationally positioned to facilitate cross-border infiltration into Pahalgam and surrounding areas.

The brutality on show in Pahalgam is the direct results of coordination between these Pakistani Military items and terror teams that thrive with their specific assist.

The foundation of all violence: Pakistan’s X Corps

They are saying if terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir has a headquarters, it lies in Rawalpindi. Pakistan’s X Corps is just not merely a army entity—it’s the godfather of terrorism within the Kashmir Valley. Each bullet fired, each improvised explosive machine triggered and each cross-border infiltration try has the imprimatur of the X Corps.

Their logistical assist, ideological grooming and tactical cowl proceed to foment hassle within the Kashmir Valley, with an goal to show it right into a blood-soaked chessboard. The troopers of this Corps have acted as state-sanctioned enablers of terror, say safety specialists.

What occurred in Pahalgam was not a rogue act. It was a deliberate and supported assault, in all chance choreographed within the corridors of the very division that claims to be combating terrorism in its personal nation.

Terrorism as coverage, not technique

Pakistan’s obsession with Kashmir is just not ideological—it’s pathological. In a latest speech, Pakistan’s Military chief Basic Asim Munir shamelessly referred to as Kashmir Islamabad’s “jugular vein,” invoking the two-nation principle and vowing to not abandon the Kashmiri individuals.

Now, his speech is being seen by safety specialists because the set off for the Pahalgam bloodbath. This additionally got here along with Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Musa, who spoke at a Rawalakot occasion in PoK solely 5 days earlier than terrorists focused vacationers after ascertaining their non secular identities, threatening to “bathe bullets and slit throats” of India within the identify of jihad.

A problem for India’s army

On January 13, 2025, Indian Military Chief Basic Upendra Dwivedi minced no phrases. Pakistan, he stated, stays the “epicentre of terrorism,” and the orchestrator of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. His phrases weren’t alarmist—they had been prophetic.

Regardless of the 2021 ceasefire settlement, Pakistan’s army has continued to push infiltrators throughout the LoC. Launch pads stay energetic. Terror coaching camps in PoK’s hinterlands are totally practical. Nothing has modified—besides the rising desperation of Pakistan’s terror equipment within the face of a altering narrative in Jammu and Kashmir.

Tourism is rising. The Valley is stabilising. Normalcy is returning. And that’s precisely what Pakistan fears most—a peaceable Kashmir that not wants the crutch of battle.

A determined act to avoid wasting a dying agenda

In line with a senior army officer talking to the Occasions of India, 144 terrorists have been neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir over the previous two years. Dealing with defeat, Pakistan’s terror outfits had been determined to make a press release. The Pahalgam assault was that determined, cowardly assertion.

However this assault won’t change the trajectory of the Valley. It solely reaffirms one fact—that Pakistan’s masks of diplomacy can’t disguise its bloodlust. Its denials are meaningless. Its “ceasefires” are a sham. And its management, army and political, is complicit in each drop of blood shed in Kashmir.

India shares a 778-kilometre-long LoC with Pakistan and each inch of it’s a witness to Pakistan’s duplicity. The world should cease pretending that Pakistan is merely a sufferer of terror—it’s, and all the time has been, its chief architect.

What occurred in Pahalgam wasn’t only a terror assault. It was a message—a chilling reminder that Pakistan stays dedicated to its terror challenge in Kashmir. However the world is watching and the reality is simple.

The blood in Baisaran meadow cries out not only for justice, however for recognition. Recognition that Pakistan can’t play each arsonist and firefighter. It’s time for accountability.