Iran has made a stunning offer to mediate between India and Pakistan amid escalating tensions following a deadly terrorist attack in the Indian hill station of Pahalgam on April 22 (2025), with the two South Asian neighbours taking retaliatory actions and the UN urging restraint. Relations between India and Pakistan reached a new low in recent history after 26 people, mostly tourists, were shot dead by terrorists belonging to The Resistance Front (TRF), a group believed to be a proxy of the banned Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

On April 26, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on his X handle: “India and Pakistan are brotherly neighbours of Iran, enjoying relations rooted in centuries-old cultural and civilisational ties. Like other neighbours, we consider them our foremost priority.” He further mentioned: “Tehran stands ready to use its good offices in Islamabad and New Delhi to forge greater understanding at this difficult time, in line with the spirit taught by Persian poet Saadi: ‘Human Beings are members of a whole / In creation of one essence and soul / If one member is inflicted with pain / Other members uneasy will remain.’“.

Earlier, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made a phone call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to condemn the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 innocent lives. The Iranian President also conveyed a message of regional cooperation in combating terrorism. Saudi Arabia, too, is eager to help normalise ties between India and Pakistan. Reports suggest that Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah bin Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud talked to External Affairs Minister of India Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Muhammad Ishaq Dar, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, over phone to discuss the current political situation in the region. Incidentally, the Indian Prime Minister was in Saudi Arabia on that fateful day.

China, Turkey Using Pakistan Against India
Political analysts are of the opinion that Pakistan, rocked by various fundamentalist factional conflicts, Baloch separatist movement and acute economic crisis, has been used by major regional powers as a pawn against India. They believe that China and Turkey are encouraging Pakistan to carry out terror attacks on Indian soil in order to destabilise the country. Earlier, the Indian intelligence officers claimed that the Pakistani terrorists were using weapons made in China and Turkey.

It may be noted that when the US started distancing itself from Pakistan in the late 1990s, China came forward to fill the void. The cooperation and coordination between Islamabad and Beijing, which began during the Cold War, are quite deep. China recently announced that it would boost trade ties with India. Simultaneously, Beijing is taking advantage of political instability in Pakistan (and also in Bangladesh) to create troubles for New Delhi. In fact, the Asian Giant is playing the double game mainly to challenge India’s (regional) security architecture.

After China, Pakistan purchases the most weapons from Turkey, the 11th largest arms exporter in the world. In recent years, Pakistan has increased its military purchases from Turkey, including the latest Akinci drones. At the same time, Turkey continues to promote Islamic fundamentalist ideology in Pakistan. The Eurasian nation has strengthened ties with different Islamic nations, including Pakistan, through the Asia New Initiative, a Turkish initiative to spread radicalism in the pretext of economic cooperation, in recent times. The Indian intelligence agencies have come to know that Ankara is influencing the Pakistani terrorists to carry out attacks in India.

Hence, the top political leadership in New Delhi is keeping the equation between Islamabad, Beijing and Ankara in mind before making a final decision on launching any major military operation against Pakistan. In such a complex geopolitical landscape, India is preparing its strategy to counterattack its belligerent neighbour in a calculated manner.

War On Terror Spreading To Digital Platforms
Peace has just been restored in Kashmir after decades of terrorism and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unfortunately, the recent wave of terror has dragged the valley back to the dark days, yet again. TRF killed 26 innocent tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, mainly to destabilise the northern Indian province.

Interestingly, there has been a significant strategic change in the activities of these groups in recent times. Instead of radical religious organisations, like LeT or Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM, a Pakistan-based Deobandi Islamist terrorist group); new organisations, such as TRF and the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), have become more active in different parts of northern India. The Modi Administration‘s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian Constitution (which allowed Jammu and Kashmir to enjoy a special status for more than seven decades) in 2019 brought about a significant change in the regional political landscape.

After considering the scenario, the terrorist outfits, too, have changed their strategies. Many such organisations have changed their names or identities in an attempt to create confusion among the Kashmiri people. Their main aim is to keep their support base intact (at the regional level) and to continue terrorist activities in a secretive manner, without arousing any suspicion. By using words, like resistance, these terror outfits are trying to make a mark on the global stage, apart from portraying their violent activities as a legitimate struggle. It may be noted that TRF and the PAFF emerged within months of the abrogation of Article 370. In line with their parent organisations, the TRF and PAFF have continued to attack the Indian security forces and innocent civilians, recruit terrorists and smuggle weapons, as well as drugs, across the India-Pakistan border.

These terror outfits have also changed their recruitment strategies. Instead of using mosques and madrasas (an Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether religious or secular, and at any level of education) for recruitment, TRF and the PAFF now operate online. They often target disgruntled youth by using manipulated images, emotional narratives or videos of Indian security operations through secure channels, like Telegram and Instagram, to stir up anger among the Kashmiri people.

Needless to say, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan, provides these organisations with logistics, training and weapons. Many terrorists receive training in terrorist camps situated in the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) before arriving in India. Hence, the war on terrorism is no longer limited to borders or battlefields, but has spread to digital platforms, as well as the diplomatic arena. In the face of this growing instability, India’s response should be equally appropriate and robust. The Narendra Modi Administration needs to be fully prepared to tackle this menace.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das