Picture abhi baki hai, warns Gen Naravane

Former Army Chief General Manoj Naravane issued a cryptic statement on Wednesday, “Abhi picture baki hai” (The picture is still incomplete)”, hours after India carried out targeted airstrikes inside Pakistan. His post on X sparked intense speculation, hinting that “Operation Sindoor” may not be over yet. Naravane’s statement suggests that the military action could be the beginning of a broader strategy to counter terrorism emanating from across the border. Defence experts echoed his sentiment, calling for sustained pressure on Pakistan to dismantle terror networks operating from its territory.

Lt. Gen. KJS Dhillon (retd) praised the Indian armed forces’ precision strikes and warned that “any Pakistani retaliation should be met with a counterstrike five to 10 times more powerful”. In a social media post, he shared an image of two women officers who briefed the media on the operation, captioning it: “They left our women to go and tell the story of what happened that day, so we sent our women to tell them what we did to them.”

In a decisive response to escalating cross-border terrorism, including the recent Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision airstrikes targeting nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The operation aimed at dismantling infrastructure linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the groups behind multiple attacks on Indian soil.

Pakistan, however, condemned the strikes as an “act of war”, alleging civilian casualties and vowing retaliation. Tensions remain high between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.