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ShareNEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan exchanged an escalating series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures on Thursday after New Delhi blamed its archrival for backing a deadly shooting attack in contested Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue and punish the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism”.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said in his first speech since the attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”. Indian police in the region have identified two of the three fugitive gunmen as Pakistani. The attack at Pahalgam in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir was the deadliest for a quarter of a century and marked a dramatic shift with the targeting of civilians, rather than Indian security forces.
New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties and withdrew visas for Pakistanis on Wednesday night. Pakistan warned that it would consider any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River an “act of war”.
On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a rare meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) with top military officials, including powerful Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, in the capital Islamabad in response to India’s accusations and measures.
“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a statement released by Sharif’s office said after the NSC meeting. “In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to link the Pahalgam attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and defeat logic,” it said.
The slew of tit-for-tat measures announced by the Pakistan government include expelling Indian diplomats and cancelling visas for Indian nationals with the exception of Sikh pilgrims. Islamabad said Indian military advisers were “persona non grata” and were “directed to leave Pakistan immediately”. The main Wagah border crossing in Punjab will close on both sides.
The Indus Waters Treaty, mediated by the World Bank, split the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbors and regulated the sharing of water. It had so far withstood even wars between the neighbors. Pakistan is heavily dependent on water flowing downstream from this river system from India for its hydropower and irrigation needs. Suspending the treaty would allow India to deny Pakistan its share of the waters.
Pakistan also said it was closing its airspace to Indian-owned or operated airlines, suspending all trade including through third countries and halting special South Asian visas issued to Indian nationals. Islamabad will also exercise the right to hold all bilateral accords with India, including the 1972 Simla Agreement, in abeyance until New Delhi desists from “fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan”, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s office said in a statement. The Simla Agreement was signed after the third war between the two countries and lays down principles meant to govern bilateral relations, including respect for a ceasefire line in Kashmir.
Indian police say the three gunmen are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a terrorist organization. Police have offered a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest. While the measures taken so far are largely symbolic, some fear New Delhi’s diplomatic moves may just be an opening salvo — with the potential risk of military action between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
In 2019, a suicide attack killed 41 Indian troops in Kashmir and triggered Indian air strikes inside Pakistan. At the Attari-Wagah frontier, Pakistani citizens had already started to leave. “We just want to go home,” said an exhausted-looking Mehnaz Begum, a Pakistani businessman from Karachi, as he left India.
Modi led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed, all but one of whom was Indian. “I say this unequivocally: Whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination”, Modi said, speaking in Hindi during a visit in Bihar state. “Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it. Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan. Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation. A soldier was killed on Thursday in clashes with gunmen at Basantgarh in Kashmir, the Indian army said.
Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar appeared calm on Thursday, with residents expressing shock at the attack, which has hit the region’s key tourist industry hard, and fear of what is to come. “Everyone I have spoken to is heartbroken and shocked,” said Siddhi Wahid, a Kashmiri historian and political commentator.
Tuesday’s assault occurred as tourists enjoyed tranquil mountain views at the popular site at Pahalgam, when gunmen burst out of forests and raked crowds with automatic weapons. Survivors told Indian media the gunmen targeted men and spared those who could give the Islamic declaration of faith.
In New Delhi, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pakistani embassy in the diplomatic enclave, shouting slogans and pushing against police barricades. A film that starred Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in the lead with Bollywood actor Vaani Kapoor will now not be released in India, local media reported, citing federal information ministry sources.
In Pakistan, activists and members of religious parties staged an anti-India protest on Thursday. The attack has enraged Hindu nationalist groups, and students from Kashmir at institutions across India have reported experiencing harassment and intimidation. “It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity,” Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami said. – Agencies
