The Strategy of Chaos: How Pakistan Continues to Wage War Through Terror

On April 22, 2025, a spring afternoon in the picturesque valley of Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, was pierced by the sound of gunfire. Tourists—mothers, fathers, children—who had come to witness the blossom-laden meadows of the Himalayas were met instead with an act of blood-soaked barbarism. The attack, carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, killed between 24 and 26 civilians and injured dozens more.

To dismiss this horror as merely another chapter in South Asia’s long history of conflict is to willfully ignore a truth the world refuses to confront: Pakistan’s sustained sponsorship of terrorism in Kashmir is not an Indian problem. It is a global disgrace. And it is long past time we treat it as such.

A Strategy of Bloodshed, Not Belief

This wasn’t an act of resistance. It wasn’t a cry for autonomy or justice. It was a deliberate act of state-sponsored terrorism engineered not in the shadows of rebellion, but in the offices of Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment. TRF, like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, is merely a new face for an old monster—the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s notorious spy agency, whose fingerprints are smeared across decades of terror across South Asia.

The timing of the Pahalgam massacre wasn’t random. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strengthens ties with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance tours India to deepen Indo-American strategic collaboration, the Pakistan Army was sending a message: “We can bleed you at will.”

This was a geopolitical ambush disguised as a terror strike. It sought to humiliate India on the global stage, damage growing alliances, and disrupt Kashmir’s slowly recovering economy—particularly its tourism sector, which has emerged as a fragile but crucial symbol of peace and normalization.

The brutality of the Pahalgam attack revealed itself not just in its scale, but in its savage precision. Survivors recount how the gunmen, calm and methodical, asked for identification, sorting their victims by name and religion. Hindus were singled out and executed at point-blank range—one woman watched her husband being shot in the head merely for his identity. The attackers did not flee after the first shots; they lingered, firing into the crowd with calculated cruelty.

When bullets rained on unarmed tourists, they weren’t just meant to kill. They were meant to shatter confidence, create global headlines, and ignite fear. And in doing so, Pakistan’s military once again reminded the world that it wields terrorism not as a consequence of weakness, but as a deliberate instrument of foreign policy. This was not random violence—it was an act of ethnic and ideological targeting, a reminder that terrorism in Kashmir is not just political but deeply, deliberately personal for Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Internal Decay, Exported Through Violence

The grotesque irony of Pakistan’s terrorism export is that it stems from its own unraveling. 2025 has already witnessed the deaths of at least 255 Pakistani security personnel due to domestic insurgencies and terror attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Baloch Liberation Army hijacked a train in March. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has launched assaults on border outposts with impunity. The Pakistani rupee is in freefall. Inflation is stratospheric. And under General Asim Munir, the once-feared military now appears both humiliated and desperate.

But instead of addressing its collapsing governance, Pakistan’s ruling elite has chosen the oldest trick in the book: deflect and distract.

It’s easier to manufacture an external enemy than face internal rot. Kashmir becomes the opiate. The Indian tourist becomes the scapegoat. And so, while the civilian government plays dress-up democracy, the generals in Rawalpindi tighten their grip through fear, war-mongering, and state-sanctioned jihad.

This strategy isn’t new. It’s been in motion since the 1990s. But today, it is more dangerous than ever because the stakes are global. What happened in Pahalgam doesn’t stay in Pahalgam.

Terrorism Is Not Contained by Borders

Pakistan’s strategy is rooted in a chilling doctrine: create controlled chaos abroad to control unrest at home. But as history has shown us—again and again—terrorism is rarely, if ever, containable.

LeT, TRF, and their ilk recruit online, radicalize in digital echo chambers, and train militants in safe havens financed and protected by elements within the Pakistani state. The propaganda value of a successful attack like Pahalgam becomes jet fuel for global jihadist fantasies. It inspires copycats. It legitimizes extremists. It tells young men in France, Indonesia, the U.K., and the U.S. that martyrdom has both purpose and precedent.

Worse, such attacks complicate global diplomacy and fracture democratic alliances. When Vice President Vance landed in India, he came to discuss cooperation on clean energy, cybersecurity, and defense. Instead, he walked into a theater of grief. That is precisely what Pakistan’s military wanted: to derail diplomacy and delegitimize India’s emergence as a stable democratic power in the region.

Weaponizing Tourism: A Target Too Tempting

Kashmir’s tourism sector has been quietly thriving. After decades of violence, domestic and foreign tourists began to return. Pahalgam, Gulmarg, and Sonamarg were no longer names whispered with dread but spoken with hope. This renaissance posed a mortal threat to Pakistan’s terror narrative, which thrives on portraying Kashmir as a prison under occupation.

The tourists, in that sense, were not collateral damage. They were the target. Their presence signified peace. Their deaths, Pakistan hoped, would signify the return of chaos. By killing them, Pakistan wasn’t simply shedding blood—it was waging economic warfare.

The optics are brutal and intentional. Militants allowed a survivor to flee and “tell Modi” what they had done. This was terrorism as spectacle, designed to terrorize beyond the valley, into television sets, TikToks, and international newsrooms.

Time for Global Accountability

The world’s continued indulgence of Pakistan’s duplicity is no longer just morally indefensible—it is strategically suicidal. A country cannot, on one hand, receive billions in international aid, and on the other, harbor entities that attack civilians with impunity. The time for polite condemnations and diplomatic slap-on-the-wrists is over.

Here’s what needs to happen:

1. Designate Pakistan as a State Sponsor of Terrorism
   U.S. lawmakers have already floated this proposal. It must now become reality. This designation would impose financial and diplomatic sanctions on Pakistan’s military-intelligence complex and limit its access to international markets, arms, and aid.
2. Dismantle the Ecosystem of Terror Financing
   The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) must recognize that Pakistan’s temporary crackdowns are cosmetic. LeT, JeM, and TRF continue to operate under new names with old leadership. This theater of deception must be exposed.
3. Empower Victims, Not Perpetrators
   Humanitarian aid and international support must flow to Kashmir’s civilians, not its tormentors. The victims in Pahalgam were not soldiers; they were tourists, children, and families. Their deaths should not become mere statistics in a bilateral spat but a rallying cry for justice.

The Global War Pakistan Keeps Starting

Pakistan wants the world to believe it is a victim of terror. And to some extent, it is. But it is also the architect. The arsonist calling the fire department. The Jekyll who insists Hyde acts alone.

This duality must no longer be allowed to pass as policy. In the post-9/11 world, we promised ourselves we would no longer tolerate sanctuaries of terror. Yet Pakistan continues to enjoy Western funds, IMF bailouts, and diplomatic credibility while sowing violence from Kabul to Kashmir.

The TRF may be new in name, but it is old in intent: kill, divide, distract. That the Pakistani state sees value in this strategy in 2025—despite the devastation it has wrought internally—speaks volumes about its moral and strategic bankruptcy.

A Collective Failure

What happened in Pahalgam is not just India’s wound—it is the world’s shame. A family vacation turned funeral. A spring valley turned killing field. This wasn’t inevitable. It was allowed.

For too long, the international community has danced around the problem of Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism, choosing diplomatic ambiguity over moral clarity. The cost of that equivocation is now counted in bodies and broken dreams.

Until the global order—led by the United States, the European Union, and multilateral institutions—decides to treat Pakistan not as a reluctant ally but as a willful enabler of terror, attacks like Pahalgam will not be the exception. They will be the rule.

And every time we look away, every time we rationalize or excuse or postpone justice, we become complicit in a script written in blood.

References and Further Reading

1. CBS News. (2025, April 22). “Terror attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir leaves at least 20 dead.” [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-kashmir-terror-attack-tourists-killed-wounded-pahalgam/][7]
2. CNN. (2025, April 22). “Gunmen open fire on tourists in Himalayan region, killing at least 26.” [https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/asia/gunmen-open-fire-jammu-kashmir-intl/index.html][8]
3. Wikipedia. (2025, April 23). “2025 Pahalgam attack.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Pahalgam_attack][9]
4. Wikipedia. (2025, January 23). “Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_and_state-sponsored_terrorism][3]
5. The Times of India. (2025, April 22). “What is The Resistance Front? Hafiz Saeed’s TRF claims responsibility for Pahalgam attack on tourists.” [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/what-is-the-resistance-front-hafiz-saeeds-trf-claims-responsibility-for-pahalgam-attack-on-tourists/articleshow/120524611.cms][4]
6. NDTV. (2025, April 23). “Pahalgam Terror Attack Updates: PM Modi Cuts Short Saudi Trip.” [https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/jammu-and-kashmir-terrorist-attack-live-updates-pahalgam-anantnag-tourists-prime-minister-narendra-modi-amit-shah-terrorists-news-8227401][2]
7. WION. (2025, April 22). “J&K Pahalgam Terror Attack: Modi: Those Behind This Heinous Act Will Be Brought To Justice.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqgbTjK66g8][6]
8. Times of India (YouTube). (2025, April 22). “25+ Tourists MASSACRED; India Deploys Commandos In Kashmir, Massive Action Next.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKaOJq_wxA8][5]
9. The Guardian. (2019, February 15). “Pakistan accused of involvement in Kashmir suicide attack.” [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/15/pakistan-accused-of-involvement-in-kashmir-suicide-attack]
10. The New York Times. (2023, May 3). “Pakistan’s Enduring Terror Problem.” [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/world/asia/pakistan-terrorism.html]
11. Reuters. (2023, July 13). “Pakistan says it will act against militants after U.N. report.” [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-says-it-will-act-against-militants-after-un-report-2023-07-13/]
12. Financial Times. (2022, October 21). “Pakistan removed from terror financing ‘grey list’.” [https://www.ft.com/content/2d6a5c94-9c2b-4b8d-8e9b-3e6e5b8b2a5d]
13. BBC News. (2021, February 25). “Pakistan’s ‘grey list’ status: What does it mean?” [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56191781]
14. The Washington Post. (2023, February 21). “Pakistan’s military faces mounting attacks at home as it battles militants.” [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/21/pakistan-military-attacks-militants/]

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