Pakistan on Thursday rejected India’s claim of “cross-border linkages” to the Pahalgam attack and announced retaliatory measures, placing all bilateral accords on hold, shutting its airspace to Indian aircraft and closing the Wagah border post.
These measures were announced after a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Islamabad warned that “any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian” would be considered an “act of war”.
In a tit-for-tat response, it held in abeyance all bilateral accords, including the Simla Agreement, which has guided relations between the two countries since 1971.
Pakistan also closed down the Wagah border post — the counterpart to Attari — and shut its airspace to Indian-owned and Indian-operated operated airlines.
“All cross-border transit from India through this route (Wagah) shall be suspended, without exception. Those who have crossed with valid endorsements may return through that route immediately but not later than 30 April 2025,” it said.
All trade with India, including that to and from any third country through Pakistan, has been suspended. Bilateral trade has anyway been negligible because of measures Pakistan undertook in 2019 in response to India’s decision to change the constitutional and cartographic contours of Jammu and Kashmir.
While Afghan products came to India via Pakistan as part of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement, the volumes had fallen amid a rise in Kabul-Islamabad tensions over Afghanistan’s failure to deal with terrorist groups targeting Pakistan, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan has cancelled all visas issued to Indians under the Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) with the exception of Sikh religious pilgrims. Indians, barring Sikh pilgrims, currently in Pakistan under SVES have been asked to leave within 48 hours.
India too has cancelled SVES visas issued to Pakistanis and has asked those holding such visas to leave the country within 48 hours.
The Indian defence, naval and air advisers in Islamabad have been declared persona non grata. They have to leave Pakistan by April 30, with these posts in the Indian high commission deemed annulled. The support staff of these advisers too have been asked to leave. This is exactly a copy of what India has done to Pakistani diplomats in these posts and their staff.
Rejecting India’s allegations about Pakistani involvement in the Pahalgam terror strike, the NSC statement said: “In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to link the Pahalgam attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and defeat logic.”
It added: “India’s worn-out narrative of victimhood cannot obfuscate its own culpability in fomenting terrorism on Pakistan’s soil.”
It asked India to “refrain from its reflexive blame game and cynical staged managed exploitation of incidents like Pahalgam to further its narrow political agenda”.