*... after the bombing, Indian officials issued a series of stern warnings to Pakistan that were rebuffed with denials of responsibility and dire threats that any attempt to use the bombings as a pretext for military action would be met with force in kind. From the viewpoint of the present-day historiographer this was a crucial event, a game of brinksmanship that had been played between Pakistan and India many, many times before and so, while tragic, it is also easily understood how clear signs of the impending catastrophe might have been ignored.
"Like two kids shoving each other on the playground," said historian Alistair Brooks. "You never expect them to come to blows."
That was before Pakistan began the trials of the "Calcutta 16" and both nations descended into a maelstrom of political upheaval that would eventually culminate in the exchange of nuclear warheads...*
