New Delhi [India], April 25 (ANI): Professor Amitabh Mattoo, strategic affairs expert and Dean at Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of International Studies, has blamed Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment for the terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam, urging the Indian government to adopt a calibrated and assertive response.

In a hard-hitting statement, Mattoo said the attack was not a random act but a calculated attempt by Pakistan's power centres in Rawalpindi to destabilise the region and provoke India. 'I think it was a deliberate, calculated move by those sitting in Rawalpindi who are part of the Pakistani military intelligence establishment to create a certain sense of uncertainty within Kashmir to provoke India,' he said.

He further alleged that Pakistan is attempting to signal its continued capacity to engineer cross-border terror.

'To generally demonstrate that Pakistan is still capable of mounting these incidents. The fact that you have a rabid Islamic zealot today as the army chief of Pakistan has added more zealotry to their strategy. This is unpardonable and India must act,' Mattoo added.

Commenting on India's initial reaction, he acknowledged that symbolic gestures were necessary to reflect the nationwide outrage. 'At the moment, the moves are symbolic, and it's important to have those symbolic moves because given the anger in the whole country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, you have to, in some ways, manage that anger,' Mattoo observed.

However, he stressed that symbolism must be followed by substantive, strategic steps that impose real costs on Pakistan's army. 'What you need to do is make it costly for the Pakistani army through calibrated actions,' he said, outlining a multi-tiered response involving the reassessment of the Indus Waters Treaty, trade restrictions, and diplomatic pressure.

'In this water treaty, and using water as a way of punishing Pakistan is one way, but you'll have to calibrate it with military force, with trade. And more importantly, by mobilising international public opinion, including that in Washington, to ensure that Pakistan begins to feel the heat,' he advised.

Mattoo's remarks come as tensions mount between India and Pakistan in the wake of a terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. (ANI)