India and Pakistan canceled visa services for each others’ nationals on Thursday amid escalating tensions following a deadly terrorist attack on Indian tourists in Kashmir.
Both nations also shut down airspace, closed border crossings, suspended trade, and exchanged increasingly aggressive statements, with India formally suspending an important water treaty.
The attack, which occurred Tuesday in the scenic town of Pahalgam, left 26 people dead and dozens more injured. A Kashmir separatist organization called The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility. Reports say the gunmen selectively spared Muslim women and children while gunning down Hindu men.
Indian authorities suspect Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) masterminded the attack. India has long accused Pakistan of allowing LT to operate freely and even supporting its cross-border terrorism.
Kashmir police have named three suspects in the attack. Two are Pakistani nationals; the third is a man from Anantnag, Jammu-Kashmir, who reportedly trained in Pakistan in 2018 before returning to plan the attack.
Speaking to supporters in Bihar, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed vengeance. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth,” he said. “Whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination.”
Modi, who switched to English during part of his speech to send a message abroad, declared, “The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”
In response, India expelled Pakistan’s defense advisors and revoked all valid visas for Pakistani nationals effective April 27, with a brief exception for medical visas. Pakistani citizens in India were instructed to leave immediately.
Pakistan retaliated by closing its airspace to Indian flights, forcing Air India to reroute international traffic. Pakistani authorities also ordered Indian nationals under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme to leave within two days.
Adding to the strain, Pakistan announced it would suspend all bilateral agreements with India, including the 1972 Simla Agreement. The move was framed as retaliation for India suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, a decades-old agreement that regulates river usage between the two countries.
The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, allocates the waters of six rivers between India and Pakistan. India controls three eastern rivers, while Pakistan depends heavily on three western rivers for its water supply. Pakistan’s water security is highly vulnerable; major disruptions could threaten 80% of its water resources.
Although India has previously threatened to suspend the treaty during past conflicts, this marks the first time it has formally suspended participation. Indian officials stated the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”
Pakistan strongly protested, warning that suspending the treaty could be considered an “act of war.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office declared, “All trade with India, including to and from any third country through Pakistan, is suspended forthwith.”
India’s suspension of the treaty and Pakistan’s retaliation suggest tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors are dangerously high, raising concerns of a broader escalation in the region.
