India on Wednesday suspended a water-sharing treaty with rival Pakistan, indicating it was blaming its neighbor for the previous day’s attack by gunman that killed 26 people in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, announced the move at a news conference in New Delhi after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special security cabinet meeting late Wednesday.
Misri said India was suspending the Indus Water Treaty “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”
A day after a dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which lasted over two hours.
The Ministry of External Affairs while briefing the media on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Security announced measures like suspension of Indus Water Treaty among others following Pahalgam attack.
- Here are key decisions:
1. Indus water treaty will be held in abeyance with immediate effect
2. Integrated checkpost Wagah-Attari will be closed with immediate effect
3. Pakistanis in India to return before May 1. Visas cancelled for Pakistanis.
4. No SAARC visas for Pakistani nationals
5. High Commission staff strength reduced to 30.
6.Defence, military, naval, air advisors declared persona non grata
India describes militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies the allegation, and many Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a home-grown freedom struggle.
Indian forces on Wednesday launched a manhunt for the assailants. Tens of thousands of police and soldiers fanned out across the region and erected additional checkpoints. They searched cars, used helicopters to search forested mountains and in some areas summoned former militants to police stations for questioning, reports said. Many shops and businesses in Kashmir closed to protest the killings.
Police called the assault a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh vowed to “not only trace those who perpetrated the attack but also trace those who conspired to commit this nefarious act on our soil.”
At least 26 people were killed and 17 others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.
Kashmir Resistance, a previously unknown militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack on social media. The group said Indian authorities had settled over 85,000 “outsiders” in the region and claimed that those targeted on Tuesday were not “ordinary tourists” but “were linked to and affiliated with Indian security agencies.”
PM Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and returned to Delhi on Wednesday morning.
