These measures include the suspension of a key water-sharing treaty, the shutting of the main land border crossing between the neighbours and a raft of diplomatic staff reductions, including withdrawing several Indian staff from Islamabad and ordering Pakistanis home.
"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 Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi.
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty gave India and Pakistan three Himalayan rivers each and the right to hydropower and irrigation resources.
It established the India-Pakistan Indus Commission, which is supposed to resolve any problems that arise.
Misri added the border crossing at Attari-Wagah border "will be closed with immediate effect", although those with valid travel documents may return before May 1.
The border closure is hugely symbolic -- it is on the Attari-Wagah crossing that crowds gather each evening to cheer on their nation's soldiers as they goose-step in a chest-puffing theatrical ritual symbolising the countries' rivalry.
The daily border ritual, which began in 1959, has largely endured, surviving innumerable diplomatic flare-ups and military skirmishes.
India said it had also ordered Islamabad's defence attach�s and other military officials in New Delhi to leave within a week, and said that India would also be withdrawing its own defence, navy and air advisors from Pakistan.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 26 men on Tuesday in the Muslim-majority region where rebels have waged an insurgency since 1989.
The insurgents are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.
The Indus River is one of the longest on the Asian continent, cutting through ultra-sensitive borders in the region, including the demarcation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty theoretically shares out water between the two countries but has been fraught with disputes.
Pakistan has long feared that India, which sits upstream, could restrict its access, adversely affecting its agriculture.
India vows 'loud and clear' response to Kashmir attack
Pahalgam (AFP) April 23, 2025 -
India's defence minister vowed on Wednesday a swift response to those who carried out and planned the Kashmir region's worst attack on civilians in years.
"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 contested 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 he believes are responsible for the killings, but said that "India's government will take every step that may be necessary and appropriate".
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in the Muslim-majority region where rebels have waged an insurgency since 1989.
They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.
- 'Serious risk' -
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that those responsible for the "heinous act" will "be brought to justice".
Modi is set to hold an emergency cabinet meeting with top security chiefs later on Wednesday.
"Their evil agenda will never succeed," Modi said in a statement shortly after the attack. "Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger."
Nuclear-armed arch-rivals India and Pakistan have long accused each other of backing forces to destabilise the other, and New Delhi says Islamabad backs the gunmen behind the insurgency.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir's struggle for self-determination.
Pakistan's foreign ministry on Wednesday offered its "condolences to the near ones of the deceased".
Analyst Michael Kugelman said the attack posed a "very serious risk of a new crisis between India and Pakistan, and probably the most serious risk of a crisis since the brief military conflict that happened in 2019".
- Blood stains -
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the attack had been "much larger than anything we've seen directed at civilians" in recent years.
A hospital list verified by police recorded 26 men who were killed on Tuesday afternoon when gunmen burst out of forests at a popular tourist spot in Pahalgam and raked crowds of visitors with automatic weapons.
All those killed were listed as residents of India except one man from Nepal.
In a separate incident in Kashmir at Baramulla on Wednesday, the army killed two people after a "heavy exchange of fire", saying the gunmen were part of an "infiltration bid" crossing the contested frontier from Pakistan.
AFP journalists near the site of the Pahalgam attack reported a heavy deployment of security forces. Pahalgam is popular with tourists in summer and is about 90 kilometres (55 miles) by road from the city of Srinagar.
Smears of blood could still be seen on the grass where the killings took place as forensic investigators searched for evidence.
A tour guide told AFP he had carried some of the wounded away on horseback.
Waheed, who gave only one name, said he saw several men lying dead on the ground, while a witness who requested anonymity said the attackers were "clearly sparing women".
The killings came a day after Modi met US Vice President JD Vance in New Delhi.
The deadliest previous attack on civilians was in March 2000 when 36 Indians were killed on the eve of a visit by then-US president Bill Clinton.
- 'Heinous' -
US President Donald Trump called Modi to offer "full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack".
China, which neighbours the troubled region, offered its "sincere sympathies" to the families of those killed.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory but fighting has eased since Modi's government revoked Kashmir's limited autonomy in 2019.
Authorities in recent years 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.
The worst attack in recent years was in Pulwama in February 2019 when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy, killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.
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