Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has put the matter plainly. A year after the Pahalgam attack, he said on Wednesday, India still has not produced evidence that justifies the certainty, fury and escalation with which it blamed Pakistan. It goes to the core of how New Delhi now handles every crisis linked to Kashmir: Sweeping its misgovernance under the rug while pointing fingers at others.
On 22 April 2025, 26 people were killed in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. The attack was horrific. Grief was justified. However, seeing New Delhi move with political certainty before it could produce a case tested by any neutral forum, especially when Pakistan repeatedly offered a transparent and independent investigation, raises serious questions and suggests the possibility that the incident may have been used for political ends.
This is where New Delhi looks politically exposed. It wants the region to accept that when India points a finger at Pakistan, the burden of proof somehow evaporates. That may satisfy television studios and party platforms inside India. It does not meet the standards by which serious states make grave claims against another nuclear-armed neighbour. A case of this magnitude should have been placed before the world with confidence that invited review, not wrapped in a national security script that treats doubt as disloyalty. Pakistan’s best answer is to keep asking a simple question. Where is the evidence?
There is another reason Pakistan should press this argument. India’s claim to moral clarity has been weakened by allegations about its conduct abroad. Intelligence officials and Pakistani investigators have, on numerous occasions, pointed to a pattern that cannot be brushed aside as a coincidence. Evidence drawn from witness accounts, financial trails and arrest records suggests India’s external intelligence apparatus has been linked to a string of killings inside Pakistan since 2020, even as New Delhi issues routine denials. Western media outlets have gone further, describing what they see as an expanding and deliberate assassination campaign on Pakistani soil. More damaging still, the United States has moved beyond speculation. The Justice Department said an Indian government employee directed a murder plot in New York against Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Meanwhile, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after gathering evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
That is not a small stain on India’s credibility. It goes directly to the question of whether New Delhi expects the world to trust standards abroad that it does not always honour itself. *