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The Indian government has also closed a key land border with Pakistan and suspended a water sharing agreement
Published : 24 Apr 2025, 12:49 AM
The Indian government has made a sweeping decision to take stringent action against Pakistan after its Cabinet Committee on Security (CSS) said it found evidence of cross-border links in the terror attack that killed 26 people in Pahalgam, Jammu, and Kashmir.
The CSS implemented a five-point plan targeting Pakistan infrastructure, water deals, the border, visas, and diplomatic personnel.
Pakistani nationals will no longer be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) visas. All SVES visas granted to Pakistani nationals have been scrapped and any Pakistani currently in India under such a visa has 48 hours to leave the country.
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,” the CSS said in a statement.
The Integrated Check Post Attari has also been closed with those who crossed over with valid endorsements may return through the same route before May 1, 2025.
In addition, India is also cutting back on diplomatic personnel in Islamabad while withdrawing permission for Pakistani diplomats in Delhi. It declared the defence/military, naval and air advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata and gave them a week to leave India. India will also be withdrawing their counterparts Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
Five support staff of the Service Advisors will also be withdrawn from both High Commissions and the overall strength of the high commissions has been cut to 30 from the current 55. The deadline for this is May 1.
The CCS reviewed the overall security situation and “directed all forces to maintain high vigil”.
The perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account, it said. India will be “unrelenting” in pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror, or “conspired to make them possible”.
The decisions were taken at a CSS meeting led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Vikram Misri, secretary of external affairs, announced the decisions following the meeting.
Regarding the decision of India's highest committee on national security, he said that the meeting highlighted the cross-border connection behind the terrorist attack.
Misri said that the committee had taken these decisions considering the nature and importance of the attack.
Twenty-six people were killed and 10 injured in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday. They were attacked while visiting Kashmir. The dead included Indian tourists as well as a Nepali national.
A terrorist organisation called “The Resistance Front” (TRF) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The organisation is a branch of the banned Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is believed that Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, has some connection to the TRF.
