India and Pakistan can ill afford war, but who will talk them down?
The US has brought the two sides back from the brink before, but the mood is very different with Trump The uneasy calm that had settled over India and Pakistan in the past two weeks was swiftly shattered in the early hours of Wednesday morning. In the days that followed the deadly attack that killed 25 Indian tourists and a guide in Kashmir in late March, the Indian government made it clear it held Pakistan responsible – and it intended to avenge the deaths. Meanwhile, the Indian public – horrified by accounts that tourists had been targeted and shot for being Hindu – was baying for blood. Newspaper columns and nightly discussions on TV news channels rang with calls for the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to take decisive action against Pakistan and “teach them a lesson” once and for all. But a fortnight after the attack, with no clear impending action or military mobilisation in sight, some had wondered whether India really intended to retaliate. “What is ...