The world is celebrating February 14, thinking about roses. For India, it is a day when it lost 40 soldiers to terror in Pulwama. That is the uncomfortable truth about this date. On this day in 2019, a Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden van into a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian soldiers on a highway in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, killing 40 CRPF personnel. While most are celebrating Valentine's Day today, for India, this date is a reminder for all of us that there are families of these martyrs who still dread this day when they lost their sons, brothers, and husbands. And we lost bravehearts.

It has been years now, but the wound is deep. That shocking afternoon, at first, the numbers were unclear. Then they began to rise. Then the images started appearing of twisted metal, shattered buses, smoke still rising from the convoy. Pulwama was not just another terror attack in a long list of incidents planned and planted by terror backers. Indians were shaken to watch the visuals of coffins wrapped in the ‘Tiranga’ moving through towns and villages; mothers, wives and children putting up a brave face in public. Homes where celebrations had once been planned fell into deadly silence. Pulwama did not feel distant. It felt personal, very personal.

The Pulwama attack was planned for years on the soil of Pakistan, the country that breeds terrorists. And as expected, the probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) traced the attack to operatives linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The terror trail ran from Jaish’s local recruitment module to explosives procurement, handlers across the Line of Control, and logistical coordination. The National Investigation Agency’s chargesheet did what India’s diplomatic dossiers had long tried to do – put structure, names, and evidence to a pattern that New Delhi insisted was not episodic but systemic.

While Pakistan continued in denial (despite being given proof as always) that the attacks were being planned on its soil, India responded. The Indian Air Force struck deep in Pakistan's Balakot soon after on February 26, 2019, destroying several terror camps in that region. India, however, maintained that this air strike was a response to terrorists planting attacks and not an escalation against Pakistan.

And what made the anger sharper was the pattern. India had seen it before – attacks planned by groups based in Pakistan and global condemnations that lasted for a few days. Terror groups are banned on paper, terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar get listed internationally, and statements from global leaders, but all this for what? Nothing. Training, recruitment, financing, terror backing - none stopped. It continued and thrived years after year.

That is why Pulwama remains an open wound. Not only because we lost brothers, sons, and fathers, but also because those backing terror are still out there planning another attack, and the world is looking the other way. If the world truly claims zero tolerance for terrorism, why do the organisations targeting India or any other country still find safe ground to operate from across the border?

For Pulwama martyrs' families, it is not Valentine’s Day. It is a day that reminds them of the horrors they witnessed and tgloss they feel each day since then.

India will continue to celebrate love, and of course, it should. But one must never forget Pulwama, because forgetting would mean accepting that such attacks are inevitable. Terrorists and terrorism survive only when they are tolerated, protected, or ignored.

Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now