The 2025 Indo-Pakistan Crisis: From Pahalgam Attack to Ceasefire

Abstract

This paper analyzes the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict that was triggered by the Pahalgam terrorist attack and contextualizes it within the deep historical and geopolitical dynamics of South Asia. It provides a detailed timeline of escalation that began with the April 22 attack on Hindu pilgrims and culminating in India’s launch of Operation Sindoor that is a series of cross-border strikes. The study critically examines India’s military and political response mainly the Modi government’s handling of the crisis in the context of upcoming elections, its use of nationalist rhetoric and the strategic signaling involved in nuclear-related statements. The paper evaluates the role of specifically Indian media narratives, the international community’s mediation efforts and the ceasefire that followed under U.S. pressure. This paper gives special attention to the performative nature of Modi’s posturing, the risks of deterrence breakdown and also the implications for Indo-Pak relations moving forward. The paper argues that the conflict exposed the fragility of peace and the increasing normalization of preemptive strikes as political tools in the subcontinent’s volatile security architecture despite the immediate crisis being averted.

Keywords:
2025 India-Pakistan conflict, Operation Sindoor, Pahalgam attack, ceasefire, South Asia security, nuclear deterrence, cross-border strikes, water terrorism, U.S. mediation, Kashmir, escalation dynamics, nationalist rhetoric.