THIS is with reference to the report `India launches devious attackin dead ofnight; Pakistan delivers befitting reply` (May 7).

India`s use of long-range precision-guided missiles, rather than airstrikes, reflects a shift in military doctrine, likely drawing lessons from the Balakot operation in 2019.

Regardless of how India went about it, nothing can obscure its moral bankruptcy.

India, as an aspiring regional power, had both the opportunity and the responsibility to show restraint, logic and leadership.

Positioned strongly in diplomatic forums, with growing trade and military stature, India should have pursued dialogue, reason and a multilateral probe. But it opted for arrogance, driven not by logic but by revenge. Pakistan was practically left with no choice, but to retaliate.

One hopes sanity would prevail sooner rather than later, but in case India, but in case India remains intransigent, Pakistan must respond strategically. Among our potentialresponsesisthe targeting of India`s water infrastructure specifically, the series of dams constructed on the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus rivers. These dams have long been used by India as political leverage, threatening to reduce or block Pakistan`s water supply. Their destruction would not only neutralise India`s coercive potential, but also cripple decades of infrastructure planning. These towering structures, built over many years, could be destroyed in minutes at a cost India would struggle to recover from for at least another decade. This would be a response that avoids civilian casualties while delivering maximum strategic effect.

QamarBashir Islamabad