Imagine a speeding passenger train derailing in the dead of night because an electric pole was deliberately placed across the tracks. Hours later, at a major international airport, an aircraft skids off a rain slick runway after a blinding laser is flashed into the cockpit during landing, temporarily disorienting the pilot. Out at sea, a cargo vessel carrying thousands of tonnes of crude oil runs aground off India’s coastline, spilling its toxic contents into marine ecosystems and fishing zones. These are not scenes from a disaster movie, but real and recent threats man-made, targeted, and increasingly frequent. Each one chips away not just at public safety, but at national morale and security readiness. Together, they signal a more insidious front in modern conflict, one that unfolds within, beneath the radar, in full view of an unsuspecting nation.
India today faces a complex and evolving national security challenge best described as a three and a half front conflict. The first three fronts are its hostile land borders with Pakistan, China, and now an increasingly assertive Bangladesh, where cross-border tensions and infiltration attempts keep the armed forces and border security forces on high alert. But the ‘half front’ emanating from within the country is perhaps the most insidious. It includes the sabotage of critical infrastructure, psychological warfare, disinformation, and acts of internal subversion that disrupt public life, strain law enforcement, and test the nation’s resilience.
Indian Railways, the lifeline of the nation, carries over 2.4 crore passengers and transports more than 3.3 million tonnes of freight daily, contributing around 1 per cent to India’s GDP and playing a critical role in economic mobility and supply chains. However, it is increasingly becoming a target of sabotage, with deliberate acts such as placing gas cylinders, boulders, cutting rails, removing sleepers etc. These incidents not only endanger lives and cause service disruptions, but also put immense pressure on railway security, law enforcement, and emergency services. The resulting delays, fear among commuters, and the loss of cargo movement have far-reaching implications for the economy, public safety, and national stability.
India’s civil aviation sector operates over 700 commercial aircraft, carrying an average of 4.5 lakh to 5 lakh passengers daily, and contributes significantly to the national economy by enabling rapid connectivity, tourism, trade, and employment. However, this vital sector is increasingly under threat from rising airspace disruptions. In 2024 alone, airlines faced over 700 bomb hoax threats. Each bomb threat can cost up to Rs 10 lakh in emergency procedures and delays, severely impacting operations. Multiply that by hundreds of flights annually, and the financial burden soars. Additionally, pilots continue to report dangerous interference from lasers and unauthorised drones, especially near airports and during critical flight phases, endangering lives of hundreds of passengers. These threats not only stretch airport security, bomb squads, and law enforcement, but also erode public confidence in air travel and undermine the efficiency of one of India’s fastest-growing sectors.
India’s maritime zone is witnessing a disturbing rise in incidents involving commercial ships running aground or facing technical failures. In May 2025, the cargo ship MSC ELSA 3 capsized around 38 nautical miles off Kochi, spilling over 452 tonnes of oil and diesel, along with hazardous cargo like calcium carbide and 640 containers endangering local ecosystems and public health. In June 2025, a fire broke out on MV Wan Hai 503 off Beypore, carrying 2,128 tonnes of fuel and toxic materials. These maritime disasters pose a grave threat to marine ecology, disrupt the livelihoods of lakhs of coastal families and impact industries linked to seafood, tourism, and port logistics.
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard are frequently diverted from core security duties to emergency containment and clean-up operations, creating vulnerabilities in maritime surveillance. These growing threats underscore the urgent need for tighter maritime regulation, monitoring, and disaster readiness to protect both national security and coastal sustainability.
One alarming trend on the rise is the deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure including railway servers, airport systems, telecom networks, and state power grids pointing to a vast, silent crisis in cyberspace with serious implications for national security and economic stability. Additionally, mass SIM card frauds and identity theft cases linked to botnets and phishing have compromised digital safety for lakhs of citizens, affecting financial transactions, Aadhaar-linked services, and government benefit transfers.
In 2024, India reported over 2.2 lakh cybercrime cases, estimated monetary losses exceeding Rs 1,750 crore. Alarmingly, these figures reflect only the reported cases implying that the actual number could be ten times higher. These incidents, though not always headline grabbing, have a cascading effect on national morale, economic efficiency, and the trust citizens place in institutions.
To effectively counter these multi-front threats, India must adopt a comprehensive national security strategy that integrates military preparedness, intelligence coordination, technological surveillance, and inter-agency synergy across civil, police, and disaster response forces. This requires establishing a unified command structure for internal security, enhancing cyber and maritime domain awareness, investing in critical infrastructure protection, and deploying AI-driven threat detection across public infrastructure and digital networks. Equally vital is the role of the population where the citizens must remain vigilant, report suspicious activity, resist disinformation, and understand that national security is a collective civic duty.
To secure the nation’s future, India must be prepared to defend not just its borders, but its streets, stations, airports, bus stops, skies, and seas from threats that wear no uniform and have no face but strike with calculated precision. The nation must evolve its security mindset and governance from reactive to resilient. In this war of a thousand cuts, resilience must be built not just in institutions, but in the awareness and resolve of every Indian.
(Brigadier (Retd) Anil John Alfred Pereira is a veteran from Goa, who served the nation with distinction for 32 years.)
