Operation name and two women send powerful message

NEW DELHI: The symbols sent as powerful a message as the substance of India's precision strikes.

Pahalgam's terrorists thought they were sending a message when they murdered husbands in front of their wives, after selecting victims by their religion. Via the name Operation Sindoor , GOI sent an immeasurably bigger message back - India is avenging the loss suffered by those women.

Sindoor, vermillion, is a symbol of marriage in Hindu custom. Pak's military-intelligence-jihadi complex would have been among the first to note the image put out by Indian Army right after GOI's confirmation of the strikes - Operation Sindoor in block letters, with the first 'O' represented by a bowl of vermillion.

But even more powerful symbolism was to come. Two women armed forces officers helmed the military side of India's official briefing. One, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi , is a Muslim, the other, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh , a Hindu. Here was GOI's answer to Pahalgam terrorists who murdered only Hindus and thought they were sowing seeds of social strife - Muslims and Hindus fight together for India.

Col Qureshi, from Vadodara, is a third-generation Army officer from her family. A decorated officer, her postings include six years in UN peacekeeping ops. Wing Commander Singh, also a decorated officer, is from Lucknow. She's a helicopter pilot in IAF, the first in her family in the armed forces. She's flown in tough terrains in the northeast and J&K.

Together, the two women sent a message Pakistan has no answer to.