Expectation grows of Indian military strike on Pakistan

India and Pakistan have announced tit-for-tat suspensions of visas for each other’s citizens with immediate effect in the aftermath of the deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir that killed at least 26 people.

- MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

Yesterday Pakistan cancelled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all India-owned or India-operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India including to and from any third country. Islamabad also reportedly expelled all Indian defence, air and naval attaches. In a statement issued at around the same time, India’s foreign ministry said all visas issued to Pakistani nationals would be revoked with effect from Sunday. It advised Indian citizens not to travel to Pakistan, and for any Indian citizens in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.

Yesterday’s developments did nothing to dispel the expectation that India will conduct some form of military strike against Pakistan in response to the attack on Pahalgam in south Kashmir. Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh has promised a “strong response”. Pakistan’s government, meanwhile, says India has provided no evidence to show it was connected to the Pahalgam gunmen, none of whom have yet been apprehended.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety. New Delhi typically describes all militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this, and many Muslim Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a homegrown separatist struggle.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, in his first public statement following the terror attack, said India would “identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.

India on Wednesday expelled Pakistani diplomats and suspended the landmark 1960s Indus Water Treaty until the neighbouring nation “credibly and irrevocably” ends “support for cross-border terrorism”. Pakistan said any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan will be considered an act of war.