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Pakistan has closed its airspace on India’s airlines, suspended a 1972 peace treaty with its biggest neighbor and warned that any deviation of the common waters of the rivers would be considered “an act of war”.
Islamabad’s movements against India on Thursday marked a sharp escalation of the dispute between the two armed nuclear nations on an attack that killed 26 tourists in the controversial northern Kashmir region.
India had already reduced diplomatic relations with Pakistan and suspended her participation in an important cross -border treaty of the attack. On Thursday, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to “identify, trace and punish” supporters of gunmen responsible for a cruelty who rocked the Indians and feared the fear of a conflict with Pakistan.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack on Pahalgam, a tourist destination in the territory controlled by the Indians of Jammu and Kashmir, and on Thursday equalized India’s allegations of supporting terrorism again in the Modi government.
The National Security Committee of the Islamic Republic denounced India’s suspension for the 1960 Treaty under which both countries separate water from the Indus River system.
“Attempt any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan according to the Indus Water Treaty … will be considered as an act of war and will respond with full force throughout the full spectrum of national power,” the Committee said after the meeting.
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He said Pakistan would suspend all bilateral treaties with its neighbor, including a peace deal of 1972, “up to India desperately. Remarks were a noticeable reference to the alleged involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Sikh Sikh activists in Canada and Pakistan.
The Committee also said that Pakistan would “obey” the Simla Agreement, which has ruled relations between the two countries since it was signed after their war in 1971. The provisions of the Covenant included the creation of the “control line” during which they face in Kashmir.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asian analyst based in Washington, said the Indus and Simla Accord Water Treaty had served as “security networks” providing an initial basis for high voltage cooperation and communication between Pakistan and India. “The relationship risks entering the unexplored territory,” Kugelman said.
Police in Jammu and Kashmir said Thursday that two of the three suspects in the Pahalgam massacre were Pakistani nationals, identifying them as part of a militant group after one of India’s worst killings of civilians.
In a “wanted” announcement published online, police described men as “Le Terrorists”, a reference to Leshar-E-Tayaba based in Pakistan, which was responsible for killing 175 people in Mumbai in 2008.
Speaking in the Indian state of Bihari on Thursday, Modi said his government would follow “to the edges of the earth” people responsible for a deadly attack for Indians in Kashmir since a 2019 suicide bomb that killed 40 paramilitaries.
“I tell the whole world, India will identify, trace and punish any terrorists and supporters of them,” Modi said. “The spirit of India will never be broken by terrorism. Pahalgam will not go unpunished.”
India has ordered the closure of its only border crossing with Pakistan, the expulsion of military advisers from Pakistan’s diplomatic missions in India, withdrawing its advisers from Pakistan, and a decrease in the number of diplomats in each country to 30 by 55.
Its suspension of participation in the Indus Water Treaty was an unprecedented measure that could be deeply harmful to agriculture in Pakistan at the beginning of the season of planting a united country in a deep economic crisis.
Ishq DAR, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, told local television on Wednesday that Islamabad was not involved in the Pahalgam attack and that “no evidence” had been assured to show otherwise. Pakistan will retaliate against any Indian action on the attack, DAR said.
“There will be a Tit-Tat’s response, and not a less iota than they have done,” he said in an interview with Dunya News.
The diplomatic crisis threatens to Pakistan’s fragile economic recovery after two years of staggation and energy growth costs have shattered home finances and poorly affected industries.
The Indus Water Treaty is vital for Pakistan because it guarantees access to the three western rivers of the Indus basin – its main source of water for agriculture, power and daily life.
Farooq Tariq, a farmer and activist from Toba to Singh in Central Punjab, said that any interruption of water supply can have a “devastating impact on Pakistan agriculture”. “(Farmers in Sindh and Punjab) are at much greater risk of water loss while there is already. Lack of water,” he said.
