Pakistan, Oct. 6 -- Gilgit woke to the echo of gunfire - a sound that shattered its fragile calm and exposed once again the simmering tension that lurks beneath the mountains' serenity. On a morning that began like any other, violence returned to a region that has long carried the burden of sectarian fault lines and political neglect.

Judge Malik Inayatur Rehman of the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court was lucky to survive a targeted ambush near Khari City Hospital. His vehicle was riddled with bullets - twelve in all - yet miraculously, he and his security staff escaped with their lives. The attack was as symbolic as it was violent: a strike not just on an individual, but on the authority of law and the confidence of the state.

The same day...