India suspends Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan with immediate effect

India has stalled key water-sharing treaty named Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Indian foreign ministry also said that Pakistani nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme.

It also announced to shut key land border with Pakistan.

India’s top career diplomat Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi that the border crossing at Attari-Wagah border “will be closed with immediate effect”, adding that those with valid travel documents may return before May 1.

“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”, Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi, apparently blaming Pakistan for the Tuesday’s attack in which twenty-six people were killed and 17 were injured when gunmen opened fire at tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)’s Pahalgam area.

The defence advisers in the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi were declared persona non grata and asked to leave, Misri said, adding that the overall strength of the Indian high commission in Islamabad will be reduced to 30 from 55.

The main border crossing checkpost between the two countries will be closed with immediate effect and Pakistani nationals will not be allowed to travel to India under special visas, Misri said.

Pakistan said on Wednesday that it was concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district of the IIOJK.

Earlier during the day, India’s defence minister said those who carried out and planned the Kashmir region’s worst attack on civilians in years would see a swift response.

“Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear,” Rajnath Singh said in a speech in New Delhi, a day after gunmen killed 26 men at a tourist hotspot in the Himalayan region.

“We won’t just reach those people who carried out the attack. We will also reach out to those who planned this from behind the scenes on our land.”

Singh did not identify those who India believes are responsible for the killings, but said that “India’s government will take every step that may be necessary and appropriate”.