Islamabad cancels visas for Indians

‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’

• AP and REUTERS, SRINAGAR, India

Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.

The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists.

The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan.

New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group that called itself the Kashmir Resistance.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said all visas issued to Pakistani nationals would be revoked with effect from Sunday. It also advised Indian citizens not to travel to Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in the eastern state of Bihar yesterday vowed to pursue, track and punish terrorists and their backers, after police said they identified two of the shooters as Pakistani.

Modi folded his hands in prayer in remembrance for the 26 men who were shot and killed in a meadow in the Pahalgam region of Indian Kashmir, exhorting thousands gathered at the venue to do the same.

“We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi said, referring to the attackers, without referring to their identities or naming Pakistan.

His comments are bound to further inflame ties between the nuclear-armed rivals after India late on Wednesday downgraded ties with Pakistan, suspending a six-decade old water treaty and closing the only land border crossing between the neighbors.

Pakistani Minister of Energy Awais Lekhari called the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty “an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move.”

Police in Indian Kashmir yesterday published notices naming three suspected militants “involved in” the attack, and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest.

Two of the three suspected militants are Pakistani nationals, the notices said. They did not say how the men were identified.

India and Pakistan each control separate parts of Kashmir and both claim it in full.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Wednesday said a Cabinet committee on security was briefed on the cross-border linkages of the attack, the worst on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

Misri did not offer any proof of the linkages or provide any more details.

Dozens of protesters yesterday gathered outside Pakistan’s embassy in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave, shouting slogans and pushing against police barricades.

The Indus treaty, mediated by the World Bank and signed in 1960, regulated the sharing of waters of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan. It has withstood two wars between the neighbors since then and severe strains in ties at other times.