‘Shelling across Pakistan-India border kills six civilians, wounds 30’, ‘3 children killed, 8 civilians injured in Pakistan Army firing in JK’s Poonch’ – recent news from Jammu and Kashmir, echoing headlines the past three decades.

In total, how many have died through cross-border firing and infiltrated terrorists across India’s western border? 70,000? 700,000? Do India’s parliamentarians know? Like a dripping tap ignored until it bursts in a gush, a paradise called Kashmir bleeds for years as routine news – death of a soldier here, three border villagers killed there – until a major terrorist attack reminds everyone of cross-border terrorism.

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The bare truth is that India’s current approach will not end killings in Kashmir. We see results of decades of India’s diplomacy in this headline in a Pakistani newspaper, September 23: “UN address: PM tells India to stop sponsoring terror, come to talks”. So people of Pakistan are informed that India is a terrorist state! Not just Pakistan, but India’s political leaders and the media too seem to live in a world of alternate reality.

By now we must have realised, surely, that conventional diplomacy has not worked, is not working and will not work in dealing with a military-controlled establishment that is rooted in deceit and denial of psychotic proportions.

And using merely words amid such reality is like blowing soap bubbles at a stone wall and hoping to break it down. At times, the unfortunate reality is that strong action unavoidably needs to be taken, to prevent further loss of lives. This is not with anger, or hatred, but with compassionate motive to save lives.

The forces of law and order do not sit down to prolonged negotiations with criminals committing murderous crimes. The urgency is to stop the criminal action. For over three decades, the people of India are victims of a country defiantly exporting terrorists into neighbouring countries. That country shelters masterminds of terrorist outrages like the brutal November 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Proof of India’s ineffective policies is that nearly nine years later, no credible action has been taken against the terror outfit responsible.

What are effective, practical, concrete actions needed to force Pakistan to stop its terrorist-breeding mischief? Spectacular speeches condemning Pakistan in the United Nations are not working. Trading insults like two nucleararmed rowdies is not working.

After Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s “strong message” in the UN, within an hour Pakistan again raked up the Kashmir issue. Other familiar news followed: ‘Army post attacked near LoC in Kupwara’, ‘Terrorists kill BSF jawan Ramzan Parray, injure family members in Kashmir’.

The only strong message can be through silent action, not well-crafted speeches. No point complaining to the international community about a terrorist state, when the biggest victim, India, has incredibly taken no meaningful measures to put tangible pressure on the terrorist state.

Within 48 hours after India in the U.N called Pakistan ‘terroristan’, the US government released $225 million to Pakistan in ‘conditional’ funding to fight terrorism! And so with confusion and contradictions, India’s worst foreign policy failure continues for decades after Pakistan’s General Zia-ul-Haq launched the cowardly ‘proxy’ war on India.

Like a highway toll plaza, the daily death toll in Jammu & Kashmir has become a ‘routine’. The Parliament, media and people jump up spluttering only after a major terrorist attack. We are at war with Pakistan, for three decades.

Count the death toll in Kashmir the past three decades to understand that reality. To end this war, the western border needs to be in more capable hands of the Indian army. Whatever needs to be done has to be done, such that no one in future even dares think of sneaking in another terrorist into Indian soil.

Challenges like the nuclear ‘deterrent’ have to be confronted, simply because we cannot allow Kashmir to suffer this endless pain – not for another day, not for another year and definitely not for another thirty years.

It means unavoidably and urgently giving the Indian army a free hand to proactively do what is needed, to end the Pakistan-origin, daily bloodshed in Kashmir – once and for all. Efficient measures are needed, like a buffer zone to end the underground tunnels used to sneak in terrorists.

US President Donald Trump gave the US army strategic and logistics freedom against the ISIS, and that vicious gang of murderers is now on the run. India’s Border Security Force was created for conventional international borders, to deal with smugglers and illegal immigrants – not for a frontier under continuous attack from a criminalized army and its hired terrorists.

Srinagar, the capital of Jammu & Kashmir, still resembles other Indian state capitals in the 1980s. Decades of growth have been lost because of letting Kashmir bleed for decades. The sinister terrorist plan is to create perpetual tension between people of Kashmir and soldiers who protect them.

That can end only when India proactively ends crossborder mischief, at its source – and the people of Kashmir are safe without needing soldiers in their streets. Our courageous armed forces reacting only after terrorists enter India only ensures a perpetual loop of threats.

The reality has to be realised that there can be no normalcy with a terrorist state until there is genuine democracy in that country. Realistically, there can be no genuine peace with the current twin tracks of tense ‘normalcy’ and murderous cross-border mischief running in parallel for eternity.

Overdue time to take practical actions needed to ensure that the military-criminal forces in the neighboring country stops infiltrating terrorists into Kashmir – in total violation of the Shimla Agreement – and stops engineering violence and other crimes like circulating counterfeit currency in India.

To make mistakes is human – whether in personal life or governmental policies. But to repeat the mistakes is foolishness, to repeat the foolishness is abnormal absurdity, and to repeat abnormal absurdities is insanity.

Overdue time for India to more effectively use the annual defense expenditure of Rs 3.59 lakh crores (US $53.5 billion) to end the insanity of foreign forces allowed to wage a sneaky war on this country for over three decades – particularly against the people and children of long-suffering Kashmir.

(The writer is a senior Mumbai-based journalist.)