Source: Associated Press
By Umer Azad, CODEPINK Ontario
The world has just witnessed yet another tragic chapter in the long and painful history of South Asian conflict: the recent escalation between India and Pakistan. What makes this moment particularly alarming, however, is not just the violence itself, but the justification that is now being normalized for such violence—a dangerous precedent rooted in the international community’s collective failure to hold powerful states accountable for aggression.
We cannot speak of normalization of disproportionate military retaliation without referencing Gaza. Since October 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed over 80,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, while displacing nearly 2 million more—an overwhelming portion of the Strip’s population. UN experts and international human rights organizations have increasingly raised alarms over what they have called a genocide. Despite this, global powers—particularly the United States and European nations—have largely stood by, enabling the assault through diplomatic cover and continued arms shipments.
This failure has had ripple effects far beyond the Middle East. It has created a model: a country suffering a violent incident can now claim carte blanche to retaliate with overwhelming force under the pretext of self-defense. No evidence needs to be publicly shared. No investigation needs to precede the bombs. The language of "eradicating terrorism" has become a tool not of justice, but of unaccountable militarism.
One cannot help but view India’s recent actions following the horrific attack in Pahalgam, where over 30 civilians lost their lives in a suspected militant ambush through the same lens. There is no ambiguity here: the attack was appalling, and those responsible must be brought to justice. But justice is not revenge. And it certainly isn’t blind retribution.
India’s rapid retaliatory strikes across the Line of Control—purportedly aimed at “terrorist camps”—were carried out without presenting any independently verified evidence. Missiles struck areas near civilian populations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While Indian officials claimed the attacks were necessary to neutralize cross-border threats, Pakistani authorities denied the existence of any militant infrastructure in those locations and reported civilian casualties.
This use of force is being justified through the same logic Israel has used in Gaza: “We were attacked, therefore we can strike wherever we believe the threat exists.” But this rationale dangerously undermines the principles of international law, which require that any act of self-defense be necessary, proportionate, and subject to accountability. Worse still, it risks turning the grieving families of Pahalgam—who deserve answers and justice—into pawns in a wider game of political brinkmanship and nationalist theater.
To be clear, Pakistan’s recent political trajectory has been nothing short of authoritarian backsliding. Over the past three years, the military has systematically dismantled democratic institutions—toppling an elected government, imprisoning political opponents including former Prime Minister Imran Khan on blatantly fabricated charges, and engineering a sham election riddled with fraud, voter suppression, and open coercion. Over the past year, the Pakistani regime even imposed a digital blackout, throttling the internet, keeping the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) banned to choke dissent and control the narrative. The judiciary has been browbeaten into submission, stripped of independence, and routinely threatened by state actors. Protesters are treated as enemies of the state, facing tear gas, batons, arbitrary detention, and road blockades. In a horrific escalation, Pakistani authorities launched a violent crackdown in Islamabad in November 2024 that allegedly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators—a massacre swept under the rug with no accountability whatsoever. The extent of the repression has drawn international condemnation, with the U.S. Congress introducing the Pakistan Democracy Act and calling for Magnitsky sanctions against top Pakistani generals. But even in the face of such systemic brutality, no foreign power—including India—has the moral or legal right to act as judge, jury, and executioner, launching missiles under the guise of bringing democracy or eradicating terrorism. Just as it would be absurd to blame a notorious criminal like Jack the Ripper for every unsolved murder without evidence or trial, it is equally unjust to presume guilt without due process on the international stage.
This escalating tendency to bypass legal norms and international scrutiny sets a perilous precedent. Just a year ago, Canada accused India of transnational repression on its soil following the assassination of Canadian citizen and Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. An active investigation is still underway. But imagine if Canada had responded not with diplomacy and inquiry, but with airstrikes inside Indian territory. Would such an act be defensible simply on the basis of national outrage and suspicion? Of course not. And yet, that is the logic now being quietly accepted when it suits geopolitical convenience.
Justice must not only be done—it must be seen to be done. India has every right to pursue justice for the victims of Pahalgam, but that pursuit must include transparency. If New Delhi has credible intelligence linking the attackers to entities across the border, let that evidence be shared with the international community, with allies, and perhaps with a neutral investigative body. Let the world bear witness to due process, not duplicity.
The stakes are too high. Two nuclear-armed neighbors cannot afford a misstep. And the international community cannot afford to remain silent when impunity becomes the norm. India must also reckon with its own internal complexities. Blaming Pakistan for every act of violence within its borders ignores the broader reality of homegrown discontent and long-standing separatist movements in Kashmir, Punjab, Manipur, Nagaland, and beyond. These movements, rooted in legitimate grievances and historical trauma, cannot be erased by air raids or rhetorical blame games. Peace demands engagement, not scapegoating.
We are entering an era where might is increasingly seen as right, where violent retribution replaces measured justice, and where the victims of one atrocity are used to justify the creation of many more. The families of those lost in Pahalgam deserve justice—but they also deserve not to be tools in a political game that no one can truly win.
