Prelude to Pehelgam: The World Must Wake Up to Pakistan’s Supremacist Rhetoric
- As Hindu Americans, we cannot stand by while Pakistan enables attacks on the values we hold dear.
In the shadow of the brutal April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, where 26 innocent lives were taken, mostly Hindus, there can be no room for ambiguity. The time for diplomatic niceties and strategic patience is over. Pakistan’s supremacist rhetoric, followed by the carnage in Pahalgam in the name of religion, must be rooted out.
In the days leading up to the attack, General Asim Munir referred to Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” while supporting the two-nation theory, adding, “we’re different than Hindus.” These statements, for anyone even mildly familiar with the subcontinent’s geopolitical lexicon, are not casual metaphors. It’s an invocation: an echo of jihadist doctrine wrapped in a military uniform. When the man commanding one of the world’s most powerful armies makes such a statement, it isn’t idle talk. It is a signal – a green light to the terror proxies long nurtured by the Pakistani state. It lays bare Pakistan’s imperialist mindset and its ideological battle cries under the guise of statecraft. The world and the United States must stop pretending otherwise.
Let’s be clear: the Pahalgam massacre was not just another tragic headline. It was the deadliest civilian attack in India since 26/11. Carried out by Kashmir Resistance – a thinly veiled alias for Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen – the slaughter bore the hallmarks of a well-coordinated, state-enabled operation designed to terrorize, destabilize, and assert an Islamist supremacist agenda. This was not about territory. This was not about policy. This was about ideology. The ideology that views Islam not as a faith among many, but as one that must dominate, by force, if necessary.
The timing of Munir’s rhetoric is no coincidence. It is coordination masquerading as coincidence. That is the doctrine of Islamic supremacy, and it is the undercurrent that links the Pakistani army’s ideology with the carnage in Pahalgam. This is where innocents paid the price of being a “non-Muslim” in blood!
As Hindu Americans, we cannot stand by while Pakistan enables attacks on the values we hold dear – righteousness (Dharma), democratic well-being (Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah), one world family (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam). The terrorists who ambushed tourists didn’t just kill civilians. They attacked the very idea of Mother Earth, where many faiths coexist, where churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques are all viewed as paths to salvation, not domination, where nations work together for the benefit of their people.
To our American lawmakers, defense officials, and think tanks: Stop being duped by Pakistan’s victimhood narrative. Recognize General Munir not as a misunderstood military man, but as a modern-day ideologue cloaked in khaki. It’s time to call this what it is: state-sponsored terrorism dressed in religious nationalism.
The United States must act. Freeze military aid. Designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terror. Cut off the diplomatic doublespeak. Because every time the free world turns a blind eye, it gives the radicals one more inch to walk the path of jihadist warfare with impunity. If we fail to stand up now, the next Pahalgam won’t be an “if” – it will be a “when”.
Anil Kothari is an Oklahoma City-based mechanical engineer, yoga practitioner, and yoga teacher.