For years, Islamabad kept saying India was running a dirty campaign beyond its borders – funding hit jobs, silencing critics, and turning foreign soil into a battlefield. Nobody listened. The world thought it was another round of subcontinental blame. Then came the bombshell from Washington.
The U.S. Department of Justice has now put in black and white what Pakistan had been shouting about for years. American prosecutors say an Indian intelligence man, Vikash Yadav, used a middleman, Nikhil Gupta, to arrange the killing of Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York. Court papers even talk about “other targets” in Nepal and Pakistan. The name might be new, but the story isn’t. It’s the same game – eliminate the inconvenient, and pretend it’s national security.
We’ve been given a rare moment when the world’s legal system, not our press conferences, is pointing to Indian wrongdoing.
For India, the timing could not be worse. It’s still trying to explain to Canada why Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara last year. Now Washington has added its own files to the pile. The idea that a country calling itself the “world’s largest democracy” is exporting assassinations has shocked even its friends. When the Americans start saying the same thing Pakistan has said all along, the world sits up.
But before we start celebrating, let’s get serious. This is not Pakistan’s victory lap. It’s a test. We’ve been given a rare moment when the world’s legal system, not our press conferences, is pointing to Indian wrongdoing. We need to use it carefully – through law, not slogans. The foreign office should work with the Americans, Canadians, and anyone else willing to join hands to build a proper case. The demand should be simple: if India believes in democracy, let it open its books and let the evidence speak.
There’s also a mirror for us. For too long, our foreign policy has depended on outrage, not outcome. We thunder, then go quiet. This time, we need follow-through. A dossier that stands up in court, not one that dies in a press briefing. A call for justice that looks credible, not political. When we point fingers at others, we must make sure our own house is clean and our own record of accountability is solid.
India, meanwhile, faces a credibility crisis of its own making. It can keep denying, but every denial sounds thinner. The U.S. case isn’t a Pakistani press release – it’s an indictment. And it’s not just about one killing plot. It’s about the mindset that the state can chase and kill its critics anywhere in the world and still claim to be a democracy. That arrogance is now under the global microscope.
The world has finally started seeing what South Asians already know: power without restraint turns ugly fast. For years, India sold the story that it was the grown-up in the neighbourhood. The DOJ just showed a different picture – one where the grown-up carries a gun in his coat.
So yes, Islamabad has every right to say, “we told you so.” But the real question is what we do next. Do we turn this moment into a serious diplomatic campaign, or do we waste it in noise and TV talk shows? Because justice, like politics, only works when you stay the course.
This time, Pakistan doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to show up with the facts – and let the world do the talking.
The writer is a freelance columnist.