Did it really happen or was it just bluster? Depending on which side of the fence you are on, you can decide if India actually crossed the line of control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and into Pakistan or not.
Lt.-Gen Ranbir Singh, director-general of military operations (DGMO) of Indian Army, along with foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup, called a press conference last week and informed the nation of the “surgical operation” to neutralise “launch pads along the Line of Control”. The army had been able to inflict “significant casualties” on the militants, Gen. Singh said. 
Note that the general said “along the Line of Control” and not across. However, subsequently it was revealed that the members of the special forces had gone from “one to three kilometre” across the LoC to carry out their mission.
Gen Singh, who had also led the Indian army’s cross-border raids against militants in Myanmar in June 2015 – a fact acknowledged by Yangon – also revealed that “I had been in touch with Pakistan army DGMO and have informed him of our actions.”
The Indian media picked up the news and it was carpet-bombing of sorts for the next 24 hours or more. It is a free press here and it is a democracy. So jingoist television news anchors themselves seemed ready to go to war with Pakistan. 
The social media, too, had more than its share of sabre-rattlers. “Enough is enough,” they said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had said it won’t be “business as usual” in the wake of the September 18 attack on the Uri military base in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed, suddenly became the toast of the entire nation. Even the usual suspects like Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal had to grudgingly admit that Modi had stood up to be counted.
The army maintains it has recorded proof of its action taken but will take time deciding whether to release it or not. So, all we now have is the Indian army DGMO’s word for it and that is more than enough for the media, politicians and Indians in general to believe that the army had crossed the LoC and those militants were indeed neutralised.
But what is available to Pakistanis is something different. Islamabad has denied any such action by the Indian army and has warned New Delhi of dire consequences should India decide to have target practice across the border.
Naturally, the man on the street in Pakistan, much like his Indian counterpart, would also believe what his government tells him. It is, therefore, only natural if there is corresponding sabre-rattling there too.
The Pakistani warning of even a nuclear escalation of the situation came in the wake of Indian diplomatic efforts to isolate Pakistan at various international forums, including the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc). That effort led to four Saarc members – Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan – joining India in its decision to boycott the upcoming summit to be hosted Pakistan.
The result: the summit has been postponed indefinitely and that bodes ill for regional co-operation when all across the world nations are looking to gain sustenance from such regional unity. 
Be that as it may, while India said it had targeted only militants, Pakistan announced that two of its soldiers were killed.
Pakistan also said it had captured an Indian soldier who had strayed into its territory at a different sector.
According to long-time Pakistan watchers here, cross-border firing and even forays across the LoC are nothing new in the Kashmir sector. In 2015 alone there had been as many as 405 such instances with casualties on both sides.
But the surprise element in the whole operation – if there was one, that is – was the public announcement by the DGMO similar in line to last year’s Myanmar operation. 
There were domestic compulsions because the death of 19 soldiers could not have gone without a seemingly public retaliation.
Some political theatre had to be in evidence even if it was only aimed at satisfying the domestic bloodlust. But with Pakistan denying it outright, the matter should end here, at least in military terms although the diplomatic and political games will continue to be played by both sides.
Media reports here said both Russia and the US had cautioned Pakistan and that China, an all-weather ally of Islamabad and a not-so-friendly neighbour of New Delhi, had stayed neutral.
When the Chinese government spokesman said Beijing wished to see “all outstanding problems between Indian and Pakistan to be settled amicably through dialogue”, the media here saw it as a victory for India because China did not condemn India’s military action across the border. This latter claim, however, seemed unsubstantiated or even premature as Beijing continued to block India’s efforts to get the United Nations declare Pakistani cleric Masood Azhar a militant. Social media is now full of calls to boycott Chinese products during the upcoming festival season. 
The public declaration of the army action has also had a major effect on the civil societies on both sides. There has been a groundswell of opinion against Pakistani actors and singers earning a living out of Indian projects and, as a counter, several cinemas in Pakistan have stopped screening Indian films. Opinions are divided on this issue too as several leading film personalities like Salman Khan, Om Puri, Shyam Benegal, Karan Johar and Mahesh Bhatt opposed the idea of a ban saying artists should not be clubbed with militants on suicide missions while many others like Anupam Kher felt the boycott has a symbolism of its own that would reflect positively on the Indian soldier.
Suffice it to say that there has been a drifting apart of peoples of the two nations in the aftermath of the Uri attacks and the Indian Army action across the border.
From ‘strategic restraint’ that was the hallmark of the Manmohan Singh government to ‘surgical strike’ is a quantum jump that Narendra Modi has taken. Till now India’s “soft power” had helped it gain the diplomatic high table in matters concerning Indo-Pak relations. This new aggressive face which Modi has proffered is bound to change the way the world looks at India from now on.
The prospects of long-term escalation of the situation cannot be ruled out. Already the government is calling on citizens to up their vigil even as para-military forces are being deployed in large numbers at strategic locations across the country. How long will this last and how much will it cost the nation are questions that nobody seems to have answers for. 
The two-and-a-half years of Modi rule till date has been marked by a distinct culture of economic revival and congenial business environment. Any hint of war – a war that, if it goes out of control, could turn out to be the most destructive in history – would put paid to all such thoughts and ambitions.
Thankfully there are signs that both sides are looking at dialogue as a means of finding an end to the current impasse. Apart from further contacts between the DGMOs, Pakistan’s top diplomat Sartaj Aziz has revealed that the National Security Advisors (NSAs) of the two countries have talked on phone on ways to reduce tension. (Pakistan’s high commissioner to India Abdul Basit told the Indian Express newspaper that he had no knowledge of such talks though.) 
It’s amazing how two peoples with more similarities than differences could end up being enemies ready to kill each other and how a simple phone call could open the door for extensive dialogue, discussion and even disarmament. Sometimes it is only when you reach the brink that you realise how bottomless the fall is and how one step back could make all the difference. Will India and Pakistan be lucky to take that step? It’s easier asked than done, I know.