Terror’s urban avatar: How India can win the new proxy war

A recent series of events, beginning with Jaish-e-Mohammad posters in Srinagar and culminating in an accidental IED blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, revealed a sophisticated terror conspiracy involving medical professionals and educated operatives. The network, spanning Delhi, Faridabad, and Kashmir, showed how digital radicalisation, online propaganda, and transnational contacts have enabled white-collar individuals to move from ideological support to active terror roles. The plot aimed not only at causing casualties but at creating societal distrust and communal division. India’s response requires coordinated intelligence, civic vigilance, community policing, and ideological countermeasures to detect radicalisation early, maintain social cohesion, and prevent future attacks.