The 72-hour armed conflict named Marka-e-Haq was another finest hour in Pakistan’s history after 6th September 1965, when the entire nation gelled together to defeat the nefarious aims of an aggressor, displaying courage, cohesion and maturity as a proud nation that valued peace but also knew how to defend its sovereignty.

On May 6, under the cover of darkness, India targeted civilian infrastructure in Pakistan at six locations – Ahmedpur Sharqia (Bahawalpur), Muridke, Sialkot, Shakargarh, Muzaffarabad and Kotli, martyring 36 innocent civilians, including men, women and children.

The attacks were launched by India employing dual-use, nuclear-capable BrahMos cruise missiles in a conventional role – an extremely foolhardy and provocative act for a nuclear state – which indicated Indian hubris and disregard for acceptable norms of human rights as well as the laws of war. This crass irresponsibility as a nuclear state was matched by the sententious rhetoric of the Indian leadership, trying to justify the unjustifiable. The most egregious Indian mistake was crossing the Rubicon of deterrence stability, introducing dangerous instability into the subcontinental nuclear equilibrium.

By firing nuclear-capable cruise missiles across the international border, India had cocked a snook at Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence. Nuclear scholars like Bernard Brodie and Thomas Schelling have highlighted the need to make nuclear deterrence credible by convincing the adversary that nuclear weapons would be used if deterrence were ever breached. In fact, another nuclear commentator, Martin Van Creveld, had categorically stated that “nuclear strategy is no strategy but pure deterrence”. Had Pakistan not responded effectively, Indian hubris might have expanded the conflict further.

Unfortunately, India has not yet learned from its humiliation in Marka-e-Haq and is busy reorganising its armed forces for ground incursions through terrain-optimised and mission-specific, combined-arms, brigade-sized groups like Rudra brigades, Bhairav light commando battalions, Shaktiban artillery regiments, Ashni drone platoons and Akash Prime air defence regiments, employing the ‘Cold Strike’ concept aimed at shallow territorial incursions to create a semblance of victory.

The casus belli for the Indian attacks on the night of May 6 was the alleged Indian false flag operation at Pahalgam, a tourist resort in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), where 26 tourists were gunned down by unnamed militants.

The objective of the Indian false flag operation and concomitant aggression against Pakistan was to project Pakistan as a terror-sponsoring state and to impose a war to browbeat Pakistan into making concessions at the negotiating table. The aggression was also meant to act as a shot in the arm for Prime Minister Modi’s electoral prospects ahead of the important state elections in Bihar.

India’s violation of international law by unilaterally suspending the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was also a hidden motive, put into practice on April 23, following the false flag operation at Pahalgam on April 21, 2025.

The Indians, however, received a shock of their lives when Pakistan responded vigorously through air and ground retaliation. The crowning glory of Pakistan’s response was the downing of seven high-performance Rafale jets on May 7. The shocked Indian armed forces resorted to attacks using loitering munitions, targeting Pakistan indiscriminately, and on May 9, launched another wave of cruise missiles and drone strikes against the Nur Khan, Shorkot, Bholari, Jacobabad and Rafiqui airbases of Pakistan. Pakistan responded effectively, destroying 84 drones and disabling or misdirecting several missiles.

The main Pakistani response came on May 10 in the form of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, during which 26 targets were attacked in IIOJK as well as mainland India, including Uri, KG Top, Nowshera Brigade Headquarters, and air/military bases at Halwara, Sirsa, Ambala, Jammu, Mamun, Naliya, Kandla, Bhuj, Swatragh, Poonch, and Rajauri, killing 50 Indian troops on the LoC alone.

The PAF destroyed several much-vaunted Indian S-400 missile systems, exposing gaps in Indian air defence. Having suffered grievous losses and an economic haemorrhage to the tune of $84 billion, the harried Indian leadership requested US mediation to end the conflict. The conflict resulted in an embarrassing defeat of Indian politico-military aims, alongside reputational damage after being dubbed an irresponsible nuclear state.

Pakistan has emerged as the undisputed winner in Marka-e-Haq, having effectively thwarted India’s war aim of pressurising Pakistan through accusations of terrorism and military coercion to extract concessions at the negotiating table under the overhang of international mediation. The military objective derived from this political aim was to attack alleged militant camps in Pakistan and inflict a crippling blow to Pakistan’s military and economic potential in order to weaken its resolve to stand up to Indian pressure.

Pakistan’s patient and responsible self-defence response, remaining within international law, earned it international goodwill and support. Its potent yet measured retaliation through Fateh I & II guided rocket artillery restored the balance of nuclear deterrence and forced India to rethink its war aims and ultimately acquiesce to US-mediated ceasefire efforts. The shift in Indian posture was a consequence of Pakistan’s effective conventional military response as well as its diplomatic and media strategy.

Marka-e-Haq, indubitably, is a watershed moment in the history of Indo-Pak conflicts, where a determined nation, courageous leadership and a better-trained and more motivated military leveraged technology-enabled network-centric warfare to defeat a much larger, yet poorly networked and platform-centric, Indian military. Pakistan emerged successful on multiple fronts – diplomatic, epistemic and military – to stand up to aggression and deliver a decisive response on the battlefield.

The strategic and diplomatic dividends of the Pakistani response, whose apotheosis was Operation Bunyanum Marsoos on May 10, are being realised in the form of enhanced international stature and increased clout as a ‘security stabiliser’ in the region.

The writer is a security and defence analyst. He can be reached at: [email protected]

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