Security personnel patrol a street the morning after militants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 23.
Dar Yasin/AP
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Dar Yasin/AP
MUMBAI, India — The day after a deadly attack on tourists killed 26 people in the mountain town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, India announced it was closing a border with Pakistan, downgrading its diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water treaty.
The Indus Waters Treaty lays out how India and Pakistan use water from six rivers that flow through both countries. It was negotiated by the World Bank in 1960 and affects hundreds of millions of people on either side of the border.
India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, told reporters on Tuesday night that the treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.” He added that no Pakistani national will be allowed into India anymore under a special visa program and asked such visa holders in India to leave the country within 48 hours.
Pakistan’s military advisers serving in the country’s high commission in New Delhi have a week to leave India. Misri said India will be withdrawing its counterparts from Islamabad too. These decisions, he said, were made in a meeting chaired by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia to return to India following news of Tuesday’s attack.
Misri’s announcement came hours after Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif denied Pakistani involvement in Tuesday’s attack.
“This is the result of a Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] government exploiting and killing religious minorities, including Christians and Buddhists,” Asif told a Pakistani news channel. The attackers, he said, were India’s “homegrown rebels.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has called for a National Security Council meeting to address the situation Thursday morning.
India has long accused its western neighbor of stoking and sponsoring armed militancy in India-administered Kashmir, accusations that Pakistan denies. The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has been disputed between India and Pakistan since they became independent nations in 1947. Each country claims Kashmir in its entirety. They have fought three wars over it. Pakistan controls a smaller portion of the region, known as Azad Kashmir.
Tuesday’s attack on Indian civilians is being referred to as the worst since gunmen stormed the streets of Mumbai in 2008 and killed more than 160 people. Indian investigations later alleged the attackers were trained in Pakistan.
Indian media now allege Pakistani origins of the Pahalgam attackers, and analysts pointed to a speech Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Asim Munir made last week, reiterating support for Kashmiris’ struggle against what he called “Indian occupation.”
Analysts say thousands of civilians and Indian military personnel have been killed in Kashmir since armed militancy took root in the early 1990s. In 2019, the Indian Parliament passed a law that removed the region’s administrative autonomy, a move that was attributed to the ongoing violence in the Himalayan valley by many in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Following this decision, mobile and internet communications were blocked, Kashmiris’ movement was restricted, and local politicians were either detained in jails or confined to their residences.
The aftermath of the clampdown witnessed a significant decrease in violent attacks. However, recent years have seen a surge in attacks targeting Indian migrant workers from outside Kashmir, with most victims being Hindus, as seen in the Pahalgam attack. The latest attack, claimed by a lesser-known militant group called Kashmir Resistance, was said to be in response to the demographic changes observed in the valley since 2019.
In response to the attack, various leaders, including President Trump, expressed solidarity with India. President Trump even took to Truth Social to declare his full support for the country. Meanwhile, right-wing news channels in India are advocating for retaliatory actions against Pakistan.
Sushant Singh, a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University and a former Indian military officer, highlighted the jingoism surrounding the attacks, emphasizing the importance of addressing security and political shortcomings rather than solely focusing on external factors like Pakistan. He pointed out that India’s Hindu nationalist government’s approach to Kashmir has alienated residents and compromised the Indian army’s local informant network.
Overall, the situation in Kashmir underscores the complex dynamics at play, with political, security, and social implications that require a nuanced understanding and a holistic approach towards resolution.
*Aakash Hassan contributed to this story from New Delhi.*
