There are many conjectures on why the Pakistan army violated the LoC and inflicted the horrendous punishment on two Indian security personnel. According to one line of thought, Indian industrialist Sajjan Jindal had recently met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and this was the Pakistan army’s chosen method of scuttling any chances of an Indo-Pak dialogue. The second conjecture attributes the violence as an attempt to reinforce the visiting Turkish President’s observation that Kashmir needs urgent mediation. Either could be right because the Pakistan army has ratcheted violence on several such junctures in the past. The third possibility, which finds few takers, is that a local flare-up went horribly wrong for the Indian side.The entire nation is anguished by the killings but passions were unreasonably inflamed when the remains of the two bravehearts accompanied by the byte brigade reached their respective villages for the final rites. But one would want to know why two middle-aged soldiers (one was 42 and the other 50) were in frontline combat operations? Did they have a chance against the much younger Pakistani commandos who also had the advantage of surprise with them? The Ajay Vikram Singh committee, learning lessons from Kargil, where ageing battalion commanders struggled to perform, had lowered the age for officers in combat. Was this option also considered for the second-rung leadership? For a government that swears by the soldier and has a large contingent of former services and intelligence chiefs on its roster and in closely linked think-tanks, isn’t it time it considered this aspect in double time? Perhaps this issue will come on the front-burner whenever the nation gets a full-time Defence Minister. Till then, it is best to rely on the Indian Army to even the scores which it has always done. The deteriorating situation in Kashmir hardly gives space to bouts of self-righteous anger. The cancellation of the Anantnag elections reinforces the need for a political approach. The guns and lathis have tried their best and managed to keep the situation under relative control. It is time for the politicians to step up to the plate.