Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday targeted Pakistan over continuing support for cross-border attacks, accusing it of using terrorism as a weapon and "waging war" against India and declaring "we have decided to remove the 'terror thorn' from India". "Terrorism is not a 'proxy war'... it is your strategy. You are waging war on us," Mr Modi said in his home state of Gujarat.
The PM pulled no punches in his Gandhinagar rally, throwing criticism also at political rivals - i.e., the Congress, although he did not name the party - who "tolerated proxy wars for 75 years".
"For 75 years... tourists, pilgrims, civilians... wherever they (Pak-sponsored terrorists) found a chance, they attacked. Tell me, should we keep tolerating this?" he asked the raucous crowd.
"'Ya goli ka jawab gole se dena chahiye' (Or should we respond to bullets with bullets)?"
India believes in peace, Mr Modi declared, but will not hesitate to strike back when provoked repeatedly. In that case, he said, "India has to remind the world this is also a land of warriors."
The PM"s sharp attacks on Pakistan follow heightened India-Pak tensions after the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, in which 26 civilians were killed.
A proxy of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a United Nations-recognised terrorist group operating out of Pakistan claimed responsibility. Islamabad, however, firmly denied any knowledge of Lashkar's presence, despite New Delhi having provided substantial evidence to connect the dots.
After a raft of non-military measures, including suspending the critical Indus Waters Treaty that irrigates nearly 80 per cent of Pak's farmlands, India launched Operation Sindoor, a precision military response that destroyed four terror camps in Pak and five in Pak-occupied Kashmir.
Op Sindoor was a 25-minute tri-service mission (the first since the India-Pak war of 1971) that began and ended in the early hours of May 7.
Ignoring a warning to lay low, Pak fired drones and missiles at Indian armed forces and civilian centres that night. A military conflict raged for the next 100 hours and India responded with more precision strikes, this time targeting Pak air force bases and air defence radars.
Eventually Islamabad sued for peace and a ceasefire was announced on May 12.
Mr Modi and opposition politicians have praised the Indian armed forces for their response to the Pahalgam terror strike and successfully neutralising Pak's missile attacks.
In his speech in Gandhinagar today, the Prime Minister said Op Sindoor had sparked a "wave of patriotism" in the country. "I have been here for two days. Yesterday I visited Vadodara, Dahod, Bhuj, and Ahmedabad... Everywhere it felt like the roaring sound of a saffron sea."
"The fluttering tricolour and immense love for the motherland in every heart..."
On Monday the PM accused Pak of 'living on hatred for India' and reached out to the people of the country, asking them what decades of conflict with their neighbours had given them.
"I want to ask the people of Pakistan... what have you gained from terrorism? ... free Pakistan of this disease of terrorism. 'Sukh chain ki zindagi jio, roti khao. Varna meri goli to hai...'," he said, which translates as 'live a peaceful life, eat your bread, else my bullets are there'.
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