Crisis is the truest test of leadership, and the recent terrorist attack near Pahalgam, in which 25 tourists and a local pony-man, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, were brutally killed, has put Jammu and Kashmir to that test once again. While the carnage was the worst in two decades, the response from both the political leadership and ordinary Kashmiris has been extraordinary and deeply moving. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s address in the Assembly was firm, balanced, and statesmanlike. So was the tone of Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, who moved the unanimously passed resolution condemning the attack. More telling, however, was the public outrage that poured out unprompted from across........

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