Bengaluru: With the mortal remains of martyred soldiers in Uri being given a befitting final farewell at different parts of the country, the top military brains and the leadership are brainstorming ways to neutralise future terror strikes and also weighing options for a 'befitting response.'
The recent calculated strikes by terrorists on India's military establishments have exposed India's security apparatus.
Speaking to Mathrubhumi from Delhi over phone on Tuesday, Sqn Ldr Vijainder K Thakur (Retd), a seasoned Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot, suggested a three-pronged strategy to avert Uri-style attacks.
The military expert with sharp domain knowledge says that India should foil Pakistan's low-intensity war through introspection, addressing shortcomings and through forceful leadership.
"India can prevent future attacks from across the border by adopting the following three simple, non-escalatory measures. The government should allow the Indian Army and the IAF to use armed helicopters over unpopulated areas in close proximity of the LoC. Such use would allow the Army to plug infiltration routes more effectively," says Sqn Ldr Thakur (Retd).
Army must be given a free hand to plug infiltration
According to him, as a second step, the Army must be given carte blanche to stop infiltration.
"Intelligence on planned infiltration should be verified using ISTAR (Information, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) assets. If confirmed, the LoC in the sector must go live with small arm fire, artillery fire and special operations to thwart the infiltration," says the former pilot-turned-author.
As the third solution, the ace Jaguar pilot says that the Indian Army (following a Pathankot-like strike) must have all the freedom to retaliate immediately in whatever manner it feels best within the sector used for infiltration.
"The Army should have clearance to strike targets up to 60-km deep using rockets," says the former pilot who served the IAF from 1974-1994.
He felt that the men who crossed from the Line of Control (LoC) could have been called as 'ISI-trained war-fighters' instead of terrorists, which could have helped to pin down the Pakistan Army.
"If India still wants retribution, the best approach would be to declare the Uri attack as an act of war by Pakistan. Successive Indian governments have termed cross-border attacks on Indian military installations as terrorist strikes, in order to duck the responsibility to respond to them," says Sqn Ldr Thakur (Retd), who was part of IAF's Jaguar ground attack stream.
Poor response action plan in place
Pointing out the some of the 'grievous mistakes' made by India and its armed forces that led to the massive loss of lives in Uri, he said there was no response action plan in place, despite the Pathankot experience.
"There was no coordinated response to intelligence of a planned infiltration. ISTAR assets were not deployed to confirm the intelligence and thwart infiltration using artillery fire," says the author of the just-published book 'Triumph in Surrender: A Gathering of Karamvir Yodhas.'
He said the security at Brigade HQs was extremely lax despite an alert, which helped the attackers to inexplicably breach the perimeter defences without being challenged.
"It's likely that many senior army officers' heads will roll on account of the above lapses," says Sqn Ldr Thakur (Retd), 62 years old, hailing from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and now settled in Delhi.
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