India has announced a raft of measures to downgrade its ties to Pakistan, a day after armed men killed 26 people in the tourist town of Pahalgam in the disputed region Kashmir.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a media briefing on Wednesday that the cross-border linkages of the attack in Indian-administered Kashmir had been “brought out” at a special meeting of the security cabinet, after which it was decided to act against Pakistan.
He said the main land border crossing between the two countries would be shut with immediate effect and New Delhi would suspend a water treaty that allows for sharing the waters of the Indus river system between the two countries.
He said Pakistani nationals would be barred from travelling to India under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) visa exemption programme, and that Pakistanis using the visas have 48 hours to leave the country.
The defence advisers in the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi were declared persona non grata and asked to leave, Misri said, adding that the overall strength of the Indian high commission in Islamabad will be reduced to 30 from 55.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of the National Security Committee on Thursday morning to respond to the Indian government’s statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar posted on X.
A little-known group, the Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message, in which it expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring what it called a “demographic change”.
The dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national, police said, and at least 17 other people were wounded.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it was “concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives” in Indian-administered Kashmir. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery”, the ministry’s spokesperson said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to the capital early on Wednesday. He decried the attack as a “heinous act” and pledged that the attackers “will be brought to justice”.
“Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakeable and it will get even stronger,” he said in a post on X.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear.”
“We won’t just reach those people who carried out the attack. We will also reach out to those who planned this from behind the scenes on our land,” Singh said in a speech in the capital, New Delhi.
Tourists flee
Kashmir has seen a spate of deadly attacks, including against migrant workers from Indian states, since New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Tuesday’s attack was a setback for Modi’s government, which has repeatedly made claims of “normalcy” in Kashmir since the region’s semi-autonomous status was revoked. New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and the region has drawn millions of visitors to its Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of South Asia Terrorism Portal, a platform that tracks and analyses armed attacks in South Asia, said “zero militancy in Kashmir is an impossible objective to realise, at least in the absence of a political solution within the state”.
“The normalcy narrative creates a situation where groups are encouraged to engineer attacks,” Sahni said. “There is no normalcy in Kashmir.”
Following the attack, panicked tourists started to leave Kashmir. Monojit Debnath, from the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, said Kashmir was undoubtedly beautiful, but his family did not feel secure anymore.
“We are tourists, and we should think about what safety we have here for us,” Debnath told the Press Trust of India news agency as he was leaving Srinagar, the region’s main city, with his family.
TRF said the “individuals targeted were not ordinary tourists”. “[Instead], they were linked to and affiliated with Indian security agencies,” it said in a separate statement, adding that it would step up its activities in the region.
India’s government has not commented on the claim.
Attacks by armed groups have afflicted Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, since an anti-Indian rebellion began in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.
