Pakistan, May 11 -- Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos was never launched for spectacle. Had that been the objective, Pakistan's armed forces would have responded with equal vigour after the very first strike instead of waiting out a long-drawn saga that prioritised deterrence and avoided walking into Modi's mousetrap. More than 30 Indian military targets were hit (interestingly, in broad daylight as opposed to the night before's cowardly strikes), including divisional command posts, air defence systems, and surveillance infrastructure. Among them, a battery of the much-vaunted S-400 was neutralised-a direct blow to India's claims of strategic invulnerability.

When the ceasefire was finally agreed upon on Saturday afternoon, Pakistan stood not ...