It has been ten days since the conflict between India and Pakistan and the subsequent ceasefire.

26 people were killed in the attack in Pahalgam on 22 April. About a fortnight after the Pahalgam attack, India took military action on nine locations located across the border and the Line of Control. India had described these as 'terrorist hideouts'.

After this, Pakistan resorted to cross-border shelling and drone attacks. There were many claims and allegations and counter-allegations during and after this conflict. Some of these claims were confirmed but most have not been confirmed yet. After this entire incident, there are many military, diplomatic and political questions, which have not yet been directly answered.

Pahalgam attackers

Jammu and Kashmir Police had identified three people involved in the Pahalgam attack . According to the police, one of them was a Kashmiri and two were Pakistanis.

According to the police, their names are- Anantnag resident Adil Hussain Thokar, Hashim Musa alias Suleman and Ali Bhai alias Talha Bhai. A reward of Rs 20 lakh was also announced for providing information about them.

After this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address to the nation , "The terrorists had destroyed the vermilion of our sisters, so India destroyed these headquarters of terror. More than 100 dreaded terrorists have been killed in these attacks by India." But the question still remains what happened to the attackers of Pahalgam.

Brigadier Rajpurohit said, "It is difficult to eliminate these terrorists because they have a network of local support around them. Secondly, they get help from Pakistan. Both these aspects together make it necessary for India to root out terrorism. It is a whole structure. Therefore, to root out terrorism, it is not enough to just kill the terrorists, but it is necessary to break the whole structure that runs it."

He says, "Eradicating this entire ideology in Pakistan is more important than killing these terrorists. Killing a few terrorists will not attack the root of terrorism."

Civilians and security personnel have also lost their lives in the cross-border attack. Many media organizations, including The Vpcal News, have also spoken to the victim's families. However, no official death toll has been released by the government yet. The question that arises here is that when there was a possibility of firing on the border, shouldn't the central and state governments have given orders to move people from the border areas to safer places?

Responding to this question, Army Air Marshal (Retired) Diptendu Chaudhary says, "There are fixed standards to deal with such a situation. Every state has its own protocol. The border areas of Kashmir have the lowest population. Jammu has more population and Punjab has the highest population."

Air Marshal Choudhary says, "People living near the border have faced such a situation before. They have been facing shelling for many years. People there are already prepared. Bunkers have been built. There are many necessary arrangements. When the siren sounds or there is a blackout, they know what to do."

He explains, "When the possibility of war increases or the deployment of army starts increasing, only then the work of removing people from there is done. Only then the border areas are evacuated. Sufficient time is given for this. Since it was not a war in that sense, this was not done. The shelling starts suddenly, so it is not possible to give warning in advance."

Claim to have shot down a fighter jet

A large piece of metal was found fallen in the Pampore area of ​​Jammu and Kashmir; the government did not deny or confirm whether it was a part of any Indian aircraft or not. On the other hand, Pakistan claimed that it had shot down India's Rafale planes.

When Air Marshal AK Bharti was asked about this in a press conference, he said , "We are in a combat situation and losses are a part of it. The question you should ask is whether we have achieved our objectives? Have we achieved our objective of destroying the terrorist camps? And the answer is yes."

Air Marshal Bharti said , "More information cannot be given right now. This may give advantage to the opponents... Yes, I can say this much... all our pilots have returned home."

On the question whether India has shot down Pakistani fighter planes, Air Marshal AK Bharti said , "Their planes were prevented from entering our border. We do not have their debris."

According to Air Marshal Chaudhry, there are different views on whether or not to publicly disclose losses while an operation is underway.

He says, "Take the example of Balakot. At that time we were not ready to publicly disclose the achievements of our mission. At that time the Ministry of External Affairs was publicly giving information. The Defense Ministry came later. By the time the Defense Ministry came forward, the narrative had changed. Abhinandan was caught two days later. After this, the entire attention of the world went there. India's strategic objective of targeting terrorism was forgotten."

Air Marshal Chaudhary says, "The army will suffer losses. This is part of their job. Its count is not important. Who shot down how many jets is not the issue. The main thing should be whether we succeeded in our strategic objective? There will be losses but was the strategic objective achieved? This is what matters."

What was discussed between India and America?

Even before the ceasefire was officially announced by India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump issued a statement. He claimed that due to his government's mediation both countries had agreed to "immediately and completely stop the conflict".

On the other hand, India says that this ceasefire happened on the initiative of the Pakistani Director General of Military Operations (DGMO). India did not deny Trump's claims but did not confirm them either.

Former Indian diplomat Dilip Singh speculates in a conversation with The Vocal news, "It seems that Pakistan must have contacted America. After this America must have talked to India. India must have said that we are ready but the initiative should come from Pakistan. After this Pakistan got its DGMO to contact India's DGMO. Our DGMO must have agreed to the ceasefire. Then the ceasefire was implemented."

He said, "It is very important for India to have better relations with America. A lot is at stake. This relationship is not limited to President Trump alone."

Opposition and ceasefire

After Trump's statement and the announcement of ceasefire, the opposition is continuously pressuring the government to share full details of how the ceasefire decision was taken. The government should clearly explain America's role in the ceasefire. But the question arises, should the government consult the opposition in case of such military operations?

On this, Dilip Singh says, "This is not part of any protocol. In such strategic and military operations, the government has to take decisions after considering many things. Therefore, it is not possible to take advice from those who are not directly involved in the operation. The details of the operation are not shared with everyone. Therefore, giving information about the operation can be a big threat to security."

Political expert and Professor of Political Science at Hindu College, Delhi University, Chandrachud Singh says that there has been no such example of consultation with the opposition in matters of military policy.

He tells The Vocal News, "Just look at the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Even then there was no discussion with the opposition on the war strategy. In the parliamentary system, decisions related to the military are not brought in the Parliament. Even if it is discussed later."

Professor Singh says, "Decisions related to the army are taken by those who have details related to the operation and military intelligence. So whether to ceasefire or not - in my opinion it is not necessary to ask this from the opposition."