OPERATION SINDOOR AND THE HUMAN COST OF LIMITED WAR: VIOLENCE AND DISPLACEMENT ALONG THE INDO-PAK BORDER (2025)

Operation Sindoor, which signalled the rise of Indo-Pakistani hostilities in 2025, brings to light the ongoing conflict between the limited war theory and its far-reaching human effects. To highlight civilian experiences that are often overlooked in statecentric security analyses, this article examines how Operation Sindoor contributed to patterns of violence, terror, and displacement along the Indo-Pak border. The study conceptualizes border zones as areas of ongoing militarization where sporadic escalations increase daily vulnerability, drawing on frameworks from human security and critical security studies. The study examines the impact of shelling,increased surveillance, movement limitations, and anticipatory dread on both shortterm and long-term migration through a qualitative analysis of official declarations, media coverage, humanitarian narratives, and secondary displacement data. The article argues that Operation Sindoor functioned as both a military operation and a catalyst for the escalation of pre-existing insecurity mechanisms in border towns. The article shows how civilian suffering becomes an incidental but accepted consequence of modern conflict management by placing relocation within the logic of strategic signalling and deterrence.