Nope. Command problem. The enemy was identified and classified by live drone footage. It was easily possible to call in a drone strike, an airstrike, or a precision air burst artillery strike, or even bracket the area with 120mm mortar. Nearly all would have done the trick.
Instead command in it's infinite wisdom eschews such instruments of force because you know z hearts and minds. Apparently the use of such systems will turn the population hostile. Yes you read that right. Go figure.
Actually the problem begins way before. We have amongst the worst senior officers corps in the world, and by a large margin, the consequence of having a selection and training regimen designed to shortlist and build up junior officers. We have great Lts, Captains, Majors. Even colonels. But at Brigadier and above, baring a hand full, we fail to produce effective commanders.
Most of these commanders lack the flexibility, innovativeness and decisiveness that a large formation commander requires to be successful. So much so that when someone is actually decent on the job he inevitably becomes famous. General Sunderji for example. Gen. Vipin Rawat is another. Nothing extraordinary about them. Just.decent commanders who understands what large formation command means.
Nobody teaches the rest that. Staff college, NDC, higher command colleges are still based on learning the bureaucracy..by the book. Our senior commanders are best compared to the British Army of WW2. The British managed to change, learning from their experiences facing the vastly superior German office corps. Now the Indian army is more british than the British themselves. Incompetent at nearly everything except bureaucracy.
This is also why you find those weird articles by ex officers like Praveen Sahwney and Lt. gen . HS Panag. He wouldn't have made brigadier in a NaTO standard army or even the Russian army. The idea of an Indian initiative is anathema to them, they can't imagine it because they were never competent enough to think independently.
