India mounts strong diplomatic response as Pakistan's role in Pahalgam attack discussed in key CCS meet

Vikram Misri

In one of the strongest diplomatic responses in recent times, India on Wednesday imposed a range of punishing sanctions on Pakistan, due to its alleged role in one of the most gruesome attacks on civilians in South Kashmir's Pahalgam region that claimed at least 28 lives and injured several more.

Addressing the press, Foreign Secretary, Vikarm Misri, underscored the links that these groups have with the Pakistani deep state and how such elements have acted with their support. In briefing to Cabinet Committee on Security on Pahalgam attack, cross-border linkages of terrorist attack was discussed threadbare and the high-powered committee decided to take a series of steps.

The Cabinet Committee on Security decided to take a series of hard-hitting steps to retaliate against yesterday's terror strike.

The boldest move has been to suspend the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan indefinitely.

With this, the water supply from the Indus river and its distributaries - the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Satluj will be stopped. These rivers are the water supply for Pakistan and impacts tens of millions of people in that country.

Here are the series of steps take by the CCS:

1) The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 will be held in abeyance with immediate effect until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.

2) The integrated checkpost Attari will be closed with immediate effect. Those who have crossed over with valid endorsements may return through that route before 1st May 2025.

3) Pakistani nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) visas. Any SVES visas issued in the past to Pakistani nationals are deemed cancelled. Any Pakistani national currently in India under SVES visa has 48 hours to leave India.

4) The Defence, Military, Naval, and Air Advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi are declared persona non grata. They have a week to leave India.

5) India will be withdrawing its own Defence, Navy and Air advisors from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. These posts in the respective High Commissions are deemed annulled.

The CCS also noted that the Pahalgam attack came in the wake of the successful holding of elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and its steady progress towards economic growth and development, the release shared by the government said.  The MEA Stressed aid in a press conference that India would be unrelenting in the pursuit of justice against those responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack.