The resignation of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has left India worried about a potential power vacuum in Islamabad. But the biggest flashpoint between the two nuclear powers may be brewing within India's very own territory, in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Tuesday, Muslim leaders in India's only Muslim-majority state declared a three-day moratorium on more than two months of ethnic violence that so far has left 34 dead and more than 200 injured. The Muslim violence started in May after a government land transfer to a Hindu group to build shelters for pilgrims to a local shrine. The state government then revoked the decision, inciting Hindu unrest.

As Sumit Ganguly explains on a nearby page, Muslim separatists and Hindu nationalists are now exploiting the issue for their own ends. They can do so because the rule of law isn't being enforced. The central government didn't fully mobilize a response until last week, and even then, security forces couldn't contain the mobs. Indian police have resorted to firing into crowds. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party hasn't helped matters. It whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment in the Hindu-majority area of Jammu by declaring this another instance of the government favoring Muslims over Hindus.

This all adds up to a ticking time bomb for India-Pakistan relations, which enjoyed a detente over Kashmir when Mr. Musharraf was in charge in Islamabad. Pakistan's militants don't seem to be playing a role in the recent violence. But that may change if the civilian government in Islamabad doesn't consolidate its power soon and a faction less friendly to India takes over.

India already has a grave problem with homegrown terrorism, as bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad last month attest. The longer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh waits to assert control over Kashmir, the more likely the state will become a breeding ground for terrorists and a point of friction with Pakistan. Kashmiris have suffered long enough. Mr. Singh needs to put an end to this, before the rest of India starts suffering too.

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