India suspends Indus Water Treaty, bans entry of Pakistanis

• Pakistanis will not be allowed to travel to India under SAARC visa.
• Any Pakistani national currently in India has 48 hours to leave.
• India also reduces overall strength of High Commission to 30.

India on Wednesday suspended the Indus Water Treaty and banned the entry of Pakistani nationals, a day after the killing of at least 26 tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). 

The new measures announced by New Delhi mark a sharp escalation between the two nuclear-armed South Asian nations. 

Speaking to journalists after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security — India’s highest decision-making body on national security, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) detailed five measures as part of what officials called a “decisive response to cross-border terrorism”.

“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”, Indian diplomat Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi.

The Indus Water Treaty is a water-sharing agreement between Pakistan and India, facilitated by the World Bank. It gives India control over the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) of the Indus basin while it gives Pakistan authority over the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab). 

Furthermore, he said, the Integrated Check Post Attari would be closed with immediate effect. “Those who have crossed over with valid endorsements may return through that route before May 1, 2025,” he added.

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

Meanwhile, the arch-rival also declared military, naval and air advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi persona non grata, asking them to leave the country within a week.

“India will be withdrawing its own defence advisors from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. These posts in the respective High Commissions are deemed annulled,” he added.

Additionally, India will also reduce its overall strength of the High Commissions to 30 from the present 55, which the diplomat says would be effected by May 1, 2025.

The development came a day after 26 men were killed at a tourist destination in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in the worst attack on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

At least 17 people were also injured in the shooting that took place on Tuesday in the Baisaran valley in the Pahalgam area of the scenic, Himalayan federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national, police said.

It was the worst attack on civilians since the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and shattered the relative calm in IIOJK, where tourism has boomed as an anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years.

The attack is seen as a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Hunt for attackers

Security forces rushed to the Pahalgam area soon after the attack and began combing the forests there, two security sources told Reuters. About 100 people, suspected to have been rebel sympathisers in the past, were called to police stations and questioned, they added.

Police also released sketches of three of the four suspected attackers, who were dressed in traditional long shirts and loose trousers and one of them was wearing a bodycam, one security source said. There were about 1,000 tourists and about 300 local service providers and workers in the valley when the attack took place, he said.

A little-known group, the “Kashmir Resistance”, claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change”.

“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.” 

— With additional input from Reuters