This one goes into the "Yeah, like we need another international crisis" file.
India's government is now claiming to have substantial, overwhelming evidence that the Pakistani government was involved in plotting of the Mumbai terror attacks that happened near the end of November 2008.
I cannot imagine that this situation will end well.
Just in case you don't remember the details, on November 26 of last year, 10 gunmen entered the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India's financial capital. They ended up killing 164 civilians and wounding at least 308. Nine of the gunmen died during the attack; one lived and was captured.
There had been obvious widespread condemnation of these attacks from across the world. The gunmen were suspected to be part of the militant organization known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group primarily involved in Pakistan and Afghanistan whose mission is to "liberate" Muslims living in the disputed Kashmir territory. The Pakistani government has been suspected of working with this group and providing them with support.
Yahoo News now reporting that India is directly accusing the Pakistani government of being involved with the planning of the attacks.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram also accused Pakistan in a TV interview to be aired Sunday of doing nothing to dismantle "the infrastructure of terrorism" on its soil amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
"Given the overwhelming evidence we have, I am entitled to presume that official agencies (of Pakistan) were involved (in the attacks)," he said, referring to such Pakistani institutions as its spy agency and army...
Asked if Pakistan had dismantled militant infrastructure on its turf, Chidambaram told India's CNN-IBN network that "none" of the militant training camps had been destroyed "to the best of my knowledge".
I don't think I need to stress how quickly this situation could escalate into a very serious conflict, especially given that relationships between Pakistan and India have over the past years been tense.