After retribution

IAF's professionalism matched by govt's measured response

The air strikes by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on a terrorist-training camp in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should not have come as a surprise to Pakistan, given that the Indian leadership had virtually promised retribution for the killing of at least 40 central policemen in Kashmir earlier this month in a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide attack. That it did take the Pakistanis by surprise is due largely to careful planning and the professional skill of the IAF’s Mirage 2000 pilots, who executed a deep incursion into heavily defended airspace and returned after successfully completing their mission. This military professionalism