New Delhi: “India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on 24 April in Madhubani, Bihar—his first public response to the massacre of 26 Indians in Pahalgam two days earlier. Modi, known for speaking in Hindi even on global platforms, made a deliberate shift to English mid-speech, ensuring that the message carried beyond India’s borders. The change in language reflected a change in posture—firm, direct, and unapologetic.
Three weeks later, the Government of Pakistan unwittingly confirmed just how far that message travelled—and how deeply it struck. A dossier published by Islamabad on 18 May, intended to build an international case against India, ends up doing the opposite. It offers detailed confirmation of the scale, reach, and precision of India’s military operation inside Pakistan, carried out in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack.
For a document meant to portray India as the aggressor, the dossier does a remarkable job listing what Pakistan lost—and how comprehensively. According to the document, over 100 Indian drones entered Pakistani airspace. They struck targets in Muridke, Bahawalpur, and Muzaffarabad—locations long associated with militant infrastructure tied to banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. There is no denial of these strikes. No claim that the drones were intercepted. Just a plain admission that they came, they hit, and they caused damage.
More significant are the Pakistani military losses listed. Two forward brigade headquarters—10 Brigade at KG Top and 80 Brigade at Naushera—were “completely destroyed,” according to the dossier. These are critical formations in Pakistan’s LoC theatre. Their loss is operationally significant. Also acknowledged is the destruction of a Field Supply Depot that served as a logistics node for ammunition and supplies to front-line troops.
Perhaps the most telling detail comes in a single line: Indian drones hovered over key military and political installations inside Pakistan—unintercepted. That alone signals airspace breach, technological superiority, and total failure of Pakistan’s surveillance and air defence protocols. For a country that frequently showcases its military preparedness and had, in fact, conferred the title of Field Marshal upon Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir after these events, the lack of interception is a glaring admission.
The document doesn’t attempt to present a balanced outcome. There’s no mention of Indian aircraft being shot down. No confirmed Indian casualties. No coherent picture of a successful defence. Meanwhile, the few retaliatory claims Pakistan makes are undermined by basic geography—listing Indian cities like Nagrota, Beas, and Bhuj as strike targets, all of which lie deep within Indian territory and remained untouched. It’s the kind of error that casts doubt over everything else.
In trying to shift global opinion, Pakistan has instead issued what amounts to an inventory of damage inflicted by Indian precision strikes. The targets were military. The hits were clean. The losses were real. And the proof now sits in a Pakistani government document.
India didn’t need to announce what it had done. Pakistan did it for them. And Modi’s words from Madhubani—spoken in English so there would be no room for misinterpretation—now echo with even greater clarity. This wasn’t escalation. This was enforcement. Swift, strategic, and deliberate. The kind of message you only need to send once.