Pakistan, May 1 -- A week after the massacre of 26 tourists in Pahalgam, the dust refuses to settle and perhaps that was the point all along. India's knee-jerk decision to blame Pakistan, with no investigation, no evidence, and no international inquiry, has set the region on edge. It was never just about the attack. It's about the machinery of statecraft being mobilised for something far graver: a manufactured crisis with the makings of a regional war.

On Thursday Federal Minister Attaullah Tarar warned of a looming Indian strike "within 24 to 36 hours." Pakistan's military, even as DG ISPR Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, categorically rejected the baseless allegations and offered something India never has in these moments: transparency....