Total Blackout: How India’s Border Towns Are Navigating Nights of Uncertainty

As India-Pakistan tensions hit a fever pitch in the wake of recent cross-border raids and drone attacks, Indian border areas across vast tracts are being subject to enforced blackouts-an old wartime strategy now back in the limelight.

 

A blackout, militarily, is the intentional reduction or complete elimination of artificial lighting in cities, towns, and key installations. The main objective is to conceal possible targets from hostile aircraft, drones, and missiles, making it much more difficult for attackers to visually spot and target at night. This technique, extensively employed in World War II, is now being reactivated in the age of precision-guided weapons, as governments attempt to shield both vital infrastructure and civilian populations.

 

In the last 48 hours, cities like Jammu, Amritsar, Pathankot, and many districts in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat have been left in darkness. The decision has been taken in retaliation to a series of Pakistani drone and missile attacks, which Indian air defenses have successfully intercepted. Sirens, blasts, and the spooky quiet of dark streets have become the new normal for millions residing close to the border.

 

Local residents speak of a tense environment: families confined indoors, stores closed early, and basic services running on reduced power. The psychological impact is evident-children are traumatized, and adults recount sleepless nights and uncertainty. Blackouts of communication and internet disruption further aggravate the tension, as people hang on for updates in darkness.

 

Though contemporary warfare is dependent on GPS and high-technology targeting, blackouts continue to be a crucial civil defense practice, gaining invaluable time and lowering the chances of civilian casualties on a grand scale. Until that time comes, while hostilities smolder, enforced night is at once shield and signal-reminding everybody of the tenuous peace on the subcontinent's turbulent border. 

 

Source: The Federal, Hindustan Times, Al Jazeera, CNN