The Pakistani Foreign Office was, as always, quick to rubbish India’s “delusional” threat of more “surgical strikes” inside its territory and reminded the international community that Delhi always pulls such stunts when there is danger of its excesses in Kashmir and against Muslims and other minorities being taken seriously on the international stage. Islamabad has also long been warning that the situation is ripe for India to carry out yet another one of its “false flag operations” to divert international attention and blame it on Pakistan. That is why a reminder of what happened in early 2019, just after the Balakot incident, was also very timely. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, a very close confident and ideological twin of PM Modi, tried to raise the stakes once again by implying that, for some reason, Pakistan might face “surgical strikes” soon enough. It is very interesting and important to note that of the five Indian soldiers recently killed in the Rajori sector of Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IIOK), five were Sikhs, which is increasingly being seen as an attempt to divert Sikh farmers’ attention away from the recent killing of their colleagues during anti-state protests, and find a common enemy in Pakistan. It’s not as if Pakistan was not prepared for just such a provocation. In fact everybody in government all the way up to the prime minister has been crying hoarse about precisely such tendencies of the neighbouring country. It’s very simple to see that whenever the BJP government in Delhi faces any sort of pressure, especially on the home front, it plays the only card it has left to play, that is spitting poison against Pakistan to try and rally the extremist pro-Hindutva gangs that are the only thing keeping Modi and his partners in power. Yet now that Islamabad has called Delhi’s bluff, the ball is back in the latter’s court; but this time the international community will be watching. *