Guest columnist Ahmed Rashid in Lahore argues that rising tension between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks might provide the two countries with an opportunity to extract a more lasting peace.

If Lashkar-e-Toiba is indeed responsible for the attacks - as Indian authorities claim and Pakistan denies - it will be the second time that the group has single-handedly put the two countries on a war footing. In 2002 each mobilized one million men for nearly a year after Lashkar attacked the Indian parliament.