Post Indo-Pak War 2025, Ground Realities In Kashmir Have Changed; So Has The Moral High Ground
The Indo-Pak War of 2025 has emerged not merely as a military confrontation, but as a watershed moment in South Asian geopolitics, with a steadily evident impact. Among its most profound consequences are the irreversible psychological and ideological shifts unfolding in the Kashmir region. While military analyses continue to evolve, one truth is becoming unmistakably clear: Pakistan’s long-standing narrative regarding Kashmir is unraveling.
The Pahalgam incident—a brutal terrorist attack linked to Pakistan-based operatives—acted as a catalytic moment in this unraveling. In its aftermath, Pakistan has not only lost strategic credibility but has suffered an ideological implosion in the terrain it once claimed to champion. In contrast, India has been gaining legitimacy, empathy, and narrative dominance in Kashmir, particularly among a populace that has grown weary of being used as a pawn in geopolitical games
What Pakistan’s Aggression Revealed
These tectonic shifts became undeniable after the launch of Operation Sindoor by the Indian Army—an operation whose strategic finesse was matched by its symbolic potency. It was not just a retaliatory military maneuver but a message to the global community and, crucially, to the people of Kashmir: the ground realities have changed; so has the moral high ground.
What followed from across the border was even more telling. Instead of recalibrating or de-escalating, the Pakistan Army responded with indiscriminate shelling on densely populated civilian areas in Jammu and Kashmir.
The districts of Poonch and Kupwara bore the brunt of this aggression, suffering not only the loss of innocent lives but also enduring severe infrastructural damage. Many in Kashmir felt that the targeting of civilian zones appeared less a strategic imperative and more a cruel psychological tactic—a desperate attempt to induce fear and suppress dissent.
Faheem Wani, a 47-year-old resident of Poonch, summed up the despair: “Pakistan is killing us like sheep. Where do we go now?”
For decades, Pakistan projected itself as the defender of Kashmiri Muslims, weaving its claim into the fabric of the Two-Nation Theory. The narrative was bolstered by religious rhetoric and ideological propaganda and attempted to position Pakistan favourably for Kashmir’s Muslim population. But decades of internal instability within Pakistan, its economic fragility, and its failure to offer any coherent political roadmap have gradually eroded that claim. In 2025, the façade shattered completely.
The contrast between propaganda and lived reality could not be starker. A university student from Kupwara voiced what many now feel: “Pakistan has used us as pawns. We thought they were our brothers. Now we know they were our jailors.”
Pakistan’s Militaristic Obsession
For years, Pakistan’s strategy relied on soft power projection within Kashmir—via religious networks, cultural channels, and identity politics. However, its recent actions have turned that soft power perception into a blunt instrument of repression. The very people it claimed to liberate now view it as an oppressor.
The disconnect between the Pakistani state and its citizens has also become glaring. The Pakistan military, traditionally the architect of its Kashmir policy, is increasingly seen as operating in a moral vacuum—detached from the aspirations of its own people and blind to the consequences of its belligerence. Voices within Pakistan are beginning to question this militaristic obsession.
At a panel discussion in Lahore, prominent human rights activist Amina Janjua referred to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) with chilling clarity: “Kashmir is not our crown jewel. It is a bleeding wound, and we are the ones wielding the knife.”
Such voices are no longer isolated. They echo from the valleys of Neelum to the border villages of Balakote in POK. Shazia Gul, a teacher at a girls’ school in the Neelum Valley in POK, observed with quiet anguish: “My students no longer ask when Kashmir will be free. They ask when we will be safe from our own soldiers.”
‘We Are Indian, Will Remain So’
The cognitive and emotional rupture vis-a-vis Pakistan is manifesting in quiet yet powerful forms of protest. In Kupwara and Poonch, mothers tied black cloths around their arms—the sign of the loss of their loved ones. This shows the atrocities committed by Pakistan through shelling. It signifies a strong anti-Pakistan stance.
Graffiti on walls reads: “We are not your war zone. We are Indian and will remain so until death.”
The words of an elderly man in Poonch, speaking to a journalist, encapsulate this dramatic reversal:
“They kept saying, ‘Kashmir banega Pakistan.’ But now I say, ‘Pakistan ban gaya Kashmir ka qatil.’ (They said Kashmir will become Pakistan. Now I say, Pakistan has become Kashmir’s killer).”
Territory is not always lost through defeat in war. Sometimes, it is lost through the collapse of trust, the erosion of moral authority, and the exposure of hollow ideologies. April-May 2025 revealed deep structural betrayals in Kashmir. With the Pahalgam tragedy tearing through remaining illusions of kinship, Pakistan lost not just land but a people it once claimed to love.
In the silence that follows the shelling, one truth endures: Kashmir will never again believe in Pakistan. The ground in Kashmir has shifted.
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