Wednesday morning the country was told of a big mortar assault by the Indian Army along the Line of Control. There is considerable satisfaction that the government has given a free hand to the Army to settle scores with its Pakistani tormentors. The immediate provocation was a sneak attack from Pakistan that killed three Indian Army men on Tuesday. For grislier effect, the body of one of them was mutilated. This tit for tat in body count has been going on ever since 18 Indian Army soldiers were killed in Uri. The next day, New Delhi arranged for an orchestrated media event announcing retaliatory surgical strikes, that we were led to believe had laid the demon of Pakistani intransigence permanently to rest.Pakistan’s army calls its country a security state and abashedly claims to be its sole guardian angel. New Delhi has happily played into its hands by opting for an eye for an eye policy on the border. There is no doubt that the mutilation of the dead is no bravery and the perpetrator must be made to pay the price for this desecration. However, as events have shown there has been no end to the violence on the border. One violent act begets another. Post surgical strikes, 18 Indian soldiers and several civilians have laid down their lives. The death toll on the other side of the border has been higher.By now South Block should have realised that a burst of machinegun fire or even a sustained mortar assault does not achieve the type of closure its men of muscle had desired. Even though the Army on Wednesday undertook the biggest fire assault since 2003, it will not achieve the desired result of silencing Pakistani guns. Tomorrow another skirmish on the border might even the score. If New Delhi does not wish to get trapped in this cycle of blood feud, it must tap the interlocutors and their skills. Pakistan’s foreign policy czar Sartaj Aziz has already signalled his desire to attend a multinational meet in Amritsar. That will be a good time to begin rolling back the spurious satisfaction the gun provides.