Online Desk: After nearly a fortnight spent in whipping frenzy for ‘punishing Pakistan’, things have not gone all according to plan for Narendra Modi and his government. Following the March 22 attack on tourists in Pahalgam that left 26 dead, New Delhi wasted no moment in pinning the blame on Pakistan.

Some punitive measures it took immediately, most alarming of which is the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, which has endured even in times of war between the two nations. The decision to hold this decades-old pact ‘in abeyance’ is a stark signal that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is willing to undermine regional stability – not to mention the rights of 250 million people next door – in pursuit of its ideological agenda. That move also reflects a government eager to externalise blame for populist point-scoring at home rather than confronting the deeper failures of its Kashmir policy.

But while missiles haven’t flown across borders — yet — the Modi government has launched a war of a different kind: one aimed at the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). In the nearly two weeks since the Pahalgam killings, Indian forces have raided hundreds of homes, detained over 1,500 Kashmiris and blown up several homes New Delhi claims belong to the suspected militants’ families.

In doing so, they’ve reminded the world of a bitter truth that Modi’s PR machine has spent years trying to bury: IIOJK remains an occupied land where the Indian state rules through surveillance, intimidation and force.

Far from bringing peace to the region, the BJP’s self-proclaimed project of integrating IIOJK into the ‘mainstream’ of India has produced a brittle façade that now lies in ruins. The latest attack, the deadliest targeting tourists in a generation, did not just puncture Modi’s image of a ‘terror-free, tourist-friendly’ Kashmir. It also recast an international spotlight that had dimmed in recent years, thanks in large part to Western governments’ eagerness to pursue trade and security ties with New Delhi at the expense of human rights.

With the world’s most significant flashpoint reigniting, the contradictions at the heart of India’s Kashmir policy and the Hindu supremacist agenda of its ruling party are back in full view.