New Delhi:
India has withheld access to the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Government of Pakistan, following the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 people. The move follows New Delhi’s announcement of a series of stringent retaliatory measures, including the suspension of the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty and the expulsion of senior Pakistani diplomatic staff.
The diplomatic fallout comes a day after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, convened to determine India’s response to the April 23 attack in Pahalgam, which left 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali national dead. The CCS resolved to take sweeping action against Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of harbouring and supporting cross-border terrorism.
At a press briefing on Wednesday evening, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the measures. Chief among them is the downgrading of diplomatic missions in each country. Both the Indian and Pakistani high commissions will reduce their personnel strength from 55 to 30, to be completed by May 1.
India has also expelled all defence, naval, and air advisors from the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. These individuals have been declared persona non grata and instructed to leave the country within a week. Correspondingly, India will withdraw its military advisors from its own high commission in Islamabad. Five support staff assigned to the service advisors in both missions will also be recalled.
India has further suspended the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme for Pakistani nationals. Any existing visas issued to Pakistani citizens under this programme have been cancelled with immediate effect.
The CCS also ordered the immediate closure of the Integrated Check Post at Attari, the only functioning land border crossing between India and Pakistan. Pakistani nationals who have entered India through the post with valid documents may return before the 1 May deadline, Mr Misri added.
One of the most consequential decisions was the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. Misri stated that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan can “credibly and irrevocably abjure its support for cross-border terrorism.”
The CCS meeting, which lasted over two hours, was attended by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Defence Minister Singh, speaking before the CCS convened, said the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack would be “given a befitting reply” and that India would also pursue those who “conspired behind the scenes.”
