The 3 March terror attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore was a tragic event on many levels. Above all for the families of the six policemen killed, men whose names we will not remember. When an “ordinary” person loses his life it never receives the same attention as that directed at the famous. But it is also a tragedy for Sri Lanka, whose tourism industry will suffer through association with this barbarous act, even though it took place thousands of miles away; and for cricket, a sport that was once a byword for gentlemanly conduct, until it became so beset by scandal.

But the deepest significance lies in the impact it will have on Pakistan, which increasingly resembles the “failed state” that many already accuse it of being. The attacks provide confirmation that India’s concerns about its northern neighbour’s inability to prevent the radicalisation of even more of its citizens are justified. These concerns were amplified by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, during his visit to India in January, when he called on Pakistan to show “zero tolerance” to its home-grown militant networks.

Pakistan is not yet a failed state: the phrase has an unwelcome ring of finality to it and bespeaks the politics of despair. Yet no one can be indifferent to the possible disintegration of a nuclear-armed country of 170 million. Pakistan simply cannot be allowed to fail. The Lahore attack only makes that resolve more urgent.

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