DPM Dar, Defence Minister Asif say NSC to give ‘appropriate’ response to Delhi’s non-serious actions: Under fire over held Kashmir attack, India seeks to scapegoat Pakistan

By Mariana Baabar *** Asim Yasin

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India on Wednesday suspended the Indus Waters 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 reporters 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 Waters 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, India also declared military, naval and air advisers 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 advisers 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 the IIOJK 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 valley. The dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national, police said.

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 militant 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”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in Tuesday’s gruesome attack in the IIOJK while wishing those injured a “speedy recovery”.

The Foreign Office was reacting to the 26 Indian tourists, all men, killed on Tuesday in Pahalgam a tourist spot.

Responding to media queries, the Foreign Office spokesperson also expressed Pakistan’s concern at the terror attack.

“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” said the Foreign Office.

Immediately after the reaction from the Foreign Office, India’s first official statement came from its Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

“Indian government will take every necessary and appropriate step. We will not stop at those who carried out this attack. Will reach those who, sitting behind the curtains, conspire to carry out such nefarious acts on the soil of India,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif Asif said in a statement that a session of the National Security Committee (NSC) has been summoned today (Thursday) to decide on an appropriate response to the steps taken by New Delhi following the attack.

“A session of the National Security Committee will be held under the chair of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,” said Asif, adding that decisions will be taken to give “an appropriate response to the Indian steps”.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar termed India’s announcements as “inappropriate and lacking seriousness”, vowing that the neighbouring country would receive a “fitting response”.

“The National Security Committee will issue a comprehensive reply,” the foreign minister said while speaking on ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’.

He further said New Delhi has not provided any evidence linking Pakistan to the recent terror incident. He added that expressing anger over terror incidents in such a manner is “unjustified”, accusing India of shifting blame for its internal issues onto Pakistan.

Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Asif said the issues raised by India would be discussed in the NSC meeting.

He said that India cannot unilaterally suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, as the agreement involves not just Pakistan and India, but other stakeholders as well, including the World Bank.

He further added that India has long sought to exit the treaty, but Pakistan remains prepared to respond with full force if necessary.

Separately, speaking to the media, the defence minister said that Pakistan has absolutely nothing to do with it, as Pakistan rejects terrorism in all its forms and everywhere.

The first cabinet member spoke to the media on Tuesday immediately after the attacks clearly said that Pakistan has no connection with this, as Pakistan doesn’t support terrorism anywhere under any circumstances and innocent people should not be the target anywhere in any local conflicts.

Speaking to the media he said, “This is all home-grown, there are revolutions in different so-called states against India, not one, not two, but dozens, from Nagaland to Kashmir, in the Khwahsciouth, in Chattisgarh, in Manipur. In all these places, there are revolutions against the Indian government.”

He said the attackers are home-grown, asking for their rights. “Hindutva forces are exploiting the people, repressing minorities and exploiting Christians and Buddhists. They are being killed, this is a revolution against that, it is because of this that such activities are happening there,” he added.

The minster clarified that there can be no doubt about it that Pakistan’s national policy doesn’t allow the targeting of non-combatants.

“But if the army or police are committing atrocities anywhere in India against people asking for their rights – people who don’t have even fundamental rights, if they are revolting and taking up arms – then it is easy to blame Pakistan,” he added.

Asif said that India should investigate the Pahalgam incident as merely levelling allegations won’t absolve them of responsibility.

“India’s allegation against Pakistan for the Pahalgam incident is inappropriate,” he said, adding that Pakistan is the most affected country by terrorism and has been facing the menace for decades.

He questioned how Pakistan could promote terrorism, being a victim of the threat itself.

“There should be no ambiguity that we strongly condemn terrorism,” the defence czar said; however, he added that a “false flag operation” could not be ruled out.

Meanwhile, Asif also clarified that Pakistan was in a position to give a befitting response to India [in case of any misadventure].

“People remember what happened to Abhinandan,” the minister said, referring to the Indian pilot who had been arrested after Pakistan shot down an Indian MiG-21 during Operation Swift Retort in February 2019.

He also accused New Delhi of sponsoring terrorists in Balochistan and “giving asylum and medical facilities to separatists”. Asif added that evidence proved India’s connection with the outlawed militant outfit, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The minister further said that several Indian consulates in Afghanistan had been facilitating terrorism in Pakistan.

Federal Minister for Water Resources Mian Moeen Wattoo has said India could not take unilateral decision on the Indus Waters Treaty, because it has the endorsement of international organisations. In a statement, he said the water sharing agreement between the two countries is recognised by the international organisations, according to a statement issued by the Press Information Department.

The minister said Pakistan would not succumb to external pressure and any aggression from the Indian side would be responded in a befitting manner.

Meanwhile, Minister for Power Division Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said that suspending the Indus Waters Treaty by India in haste and without regard for its consequences, amounts to water warfare. In his statement, the minister said, “India’s reckless suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move. Every drop is ours by right, and we will defend it with full force — legally, politically, and globally” Former foreign minister and High Commissioner to India Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jillani demanded an impartial inquiry. He pointed out that even in the past when in 2000 when Sikhs were killed in Chittisingpura, India blamed Pakistan but consequent investigations cleared Pakistan of the allegations.

Meanwhile, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Senator Irfan Siddiqui also condemned the incident in IIOJK, calling it a false flag operation orchestrated by the Indian army.

Speaking to the media after the launching ceremony of a book held at Alhamra Hall in Lahore on Tuesday, Siddiqui said that India had a long-standing history of staging such incidents to malign other countries, especially during visits by foreign dignitaries.

“India has forcefully occupied the lands of Kashmiris and has been involved in their killings. Moreover, it has consistently engaged in acts of terrorism within Pakistan,” he stated, adding that Pakistani authorities have apprehended several Indian spies over the years.

India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory. In recent years, the authorities have promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter and to escape the sweltering summer heat elsewhere in India.

Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, mostly domestic visitors.

India revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Senator Sherry Rehman, Vice President of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Parliamentary Leader in Senate on Wednesday condemned the attack in the IIOJK.

“Condemn the shocking terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam. Unfortunately, the reflexive finger-pointing already at play against Pakistan has become the boilerplate response for a New Delhi that is unable to contain its own spectacular failures amidst a fundamentalist meltdown. Voices of reason that urge strategic stability, responsible engagement across the LOC are ignored, even ridiculed.

“As expected, the Indian right wing will now start making shrill calls to ‘annihilate’ Pakistan, before one can even say ‘false flag’. Probably a wasted effort to say that stridency-on-steroids is not a foreign policy,” she asserted.

Separately, talking to The News, Senator Sherry said the escalation by India is both unwarranted and disproportionate.

“The fact that today India has announced suspension [of Indus Waters Treaty] on the basis of concocted and malicious accusations against Pakistan tells us that India has shed all deference to rules or laws or treaties, and is invested in actively pursuing its rogue status,” she said when sought her comment on India’s accusation against Pakistan.

“It is obvious now that New Delhi in its ultra nationalist avatar believes not in strategic stability or restraint but in weaponisation of every tool possible against Pakistan, including water,” she said.

Sherry said acts of terror with zero evidence linking any dots to another state are generally not used to justify the creation of a 21st century Iron Curtain, but that appears to be what the right-wing wants in India. She said the dizzying speed with which the responsibility of the condemnable attack was planted on Pakistan raised obvious questions about the veracity and intentions of the Modi regime. “This is frankly a kiloton of fake news being fattened into a fully-fledged campaign for a casus belli,” she said.

As for the Indus Waters Treaty, Senator Sherry said “it cannot in my opinion be abrogated by one side. Its clauses bind both parties to agree on changes, while forums for dispute resolution exist”.

When connected, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that India’s action on Indus Waters Treaty is a grave violation of international law and is tantamount to committing water aggression against Pakistan.

“The other steps are meaningless but Indus Waters Treaty is a core national interest of Pakistan and the Indian action is politically-motivated, illegal & totally unacceptable!” He said India has exhausted all their available options, ruled out the military option because they have learnt a lesson from the past.

Earlier in a tweet on social media platform X, he stated that Pahalgam terror strike in Indian Occupied Kashmir, which deserves strong condemnation for killing of innocent civilians, has the hallmarks of a classical false flag operation of Indian intelligence/ security forces, timed to blame Pakistan at a time of US Vice President JD Vance visit to India and Indian PM Modi’s trip to Saudi Arabia, like Chittisinghpura killing of Sikhs in March 2000 during President Clinton’s visit to India!

“‘The Meadow’, an investigative study by 2 Western journalists, is an expose of India’s false flag operation in Occupied Kashmir in 1995 targeting Western tourists, aimed at tagging ‘terrorism’ label to Kashmiri freedom struggle + blaming Pakistan,” he stated.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry has also voiced his serious concern over the killing of innocent tourists in the terrorist attack, saying that “no religion in the world allows the killing of humanity”. In a statement issued here, the president referred to war hysteria being created, and said that it was quite unfortunate that soon after the tragic incident the India’s warmongering regime led by Modi resorted to traditional blame to malign Pakistan.

“India is in the habit of levelling allegations against Pakistan, this is what it did in 2019 following the Pulwama attack,” he remarked.

“Now that the US Vice President is on a visit to India, the Indian government has yet again made a failed attempt to hoodwink the world by creating a drama of false flag operation in Pahalgam,” Barrister Chaudhry said, New Delhi has been blaming Pakistan for various false flag operations in occupied Kashmir or inside India in the past.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Mian Rauf Atta, in a statement, said that at this juncture, a firm tit-for-tat response is essential to uphold national dignity.

“We strongly urge the Government of Pakistan to declare all Indian diplomats currently present in Pakistan as persona-non-grata and direct them to leave the country within 48 hours, he said.

According to an Indian media report, businessman Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, on Wednesday linked the Pahalgam terror attack to BJP government’s Hindutva push in the country evoking a strong retort from the BJP.

“If you dissect this terrorist act that took place, if they (terrorists) are looking at people’s identity, why are they doing this? Because there’s a divide that has come about in our country with Hindus and Muslims ... and also Christians. Looking at identities and then killing somebody, that’s a message to the PM, because Muslims are feeling weakened. The minorities are feeling weakened,” Robert Vadra said reacting to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 28 innocent people lost their lives. “Why are we having communal disharmony in our country. This will create divides. This will create these kinds of organisations feel that Hindus are making a problem for all the Muslims. We don’t need that. You ask many Hindus and Muslims together, they help each other. In Covid, we saw they helped each other. They don’t understand all these political ways of trying to infuse disorder to win elections,” he added, while clarifying that it was his personal view and he was not speaking on behalf of the Congress party or his family.

The BJP was quick to slam Robert Vadra. BJP leader Amit Malviya posted on X, “Shocking! Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra shamelessly defends an act of terror, offering cover to the terrorists instead of condemning them.”