Pahalgam attack: Pakistan closes land, air borders to India

Tensions between India and Pakistan are the highest they've been in years following the deadly Pahalgam attack.

DW breaks down the measures taken by both New Delhi and Islamabad.

A top hospital in the city of Mumbai announced free treatment for people who had either lost their family members or were injured by gunmen in Pahalgam.

Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and Research Center announced that it established a dedicated hotline for victims of the violence as well.

At least 26 people, mostly tourists visiting the Indian-administered territory of Kashmir, were killed by gunmen on April 22.

Indian officials have labeled it as an act of terrorism, with authorities announcing a series of measures against Pakistan on Wednesday. 

The Indian Foreign Ministry briefed envoys of select Group of 20 nations (G20),  including China and Canada, according to the Indian news agency ANI.

The meeting lasted for 30 minutes.

G20 is a grouping made up of the European Union and 19 countries, including India, that aims to unite leaders around shared challenges.

As of Thursday afternoon, the main and only border crossing check post between India and Pakistan remained closed after both countries ordered authorities to do so.

India first announced a raft of measures against Pakistan on Wednesday evening, including suspending special visas for Pakistani skilled workers and diplomats.

The Indian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said all visas, including medical visas, issued to Pakistani nationals would be revoked with effect from Sunday.

Indian authorities added that Pakistanis currently in India must leave before their visas expire based on the revised timeline.

The Indian government blamed the attack that killed 26 civilians outside of Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Pakistan-based militants.

The Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday that a special security meeting confirmed the origins of the attacks to be one from across the border.

India also announced other measures, including cutting the number of diplomatic staff and suspending a landmark World Bank-negotiated water treaty.

In response, Pakistan on Thursday closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India including to and from any third country.

The Pakistani government said it would view any attempt by India to stop or divert water belonging to Pakistan as an "act of war."

"Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty... will be considered as an act of war," said the statement by the prime minister's office.

The Indian government announced the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty as part of a host of retaliatory measures it took against Pakistan.

Pakistan is heavily dependent on water from the Indus River and its tributaries for agriculture and drinking water. The treaty's suspension could mean Pakistan faces water shortages.

The Indian police in Kashmir also on Thursday identified three suspects, two of them Pakistani nationals. It accused them of being "involved in" the attack in Pahalgam, but did not offer any proof.

"India has taken irresponsible steps and leveled allegations," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told local Dunya News TV channel. 

The Pakistani prime minister's office declared the "Indian Defence, Naval and Air Advisors in Islamabad persona non grata," adding they were "directed to leave Pakistan immediately."

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a rare national security meeting earlier this morning to discuss his country's response to Indian measures against the country.

The statement read that land borders would be closed and trade canceled, along with the closure of airspace to Indian-owned or operated airlines.

Visas for Indian nationals also stood canceled, except Silk pilgrims who wish to travel to Pakistan to visit various religious sites.

The dispute between India and Pakistan over the region of Jammu and Kashmir can be traced back to 1947, when British India was partitioned.

The partition established a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India and was to allow the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to choose which country to accede to.

The Kashmiri monarch at the time, or the Hindu maharaja, had sought to keep Kashmir independent because the state has been subjugated and oppressed for centuries by conquering empires.

But the monarch decided to join India in exchange for help to dispel invading Pakistani herders, triggering the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947-48.

The Karachi Agreement of 1949 temporarily ended violence in the Jammu-Kashmir region by establishing a ceasefire overseen by members of a UN truce subcommittee.

But tensions simmered until a skirmish between border controls escalated to a full-blown war between India and Pakistan in 1965.

India and Pakistan fought another brief war over East Pakistan in 1971, with Indian forces helping the territory gain independence, that resulted in modern-day Bangladesh.

In 1972, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signed the Simla Agreement to usher in a new era of bilateral relations.

The agreement established the provisional militarized border that split Jammu and Kashmir into two administrative regions.

India controls the biggest portion, while Pakistan controls what it calls Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. China also occupies a small region called Aksai Chin to the east, which India has also laid claim to.

In 1989, a pro-independence insurgency gathered momentum in Indian-administered Kashmir following disputed state elections.

The insurgency escalated over the next decade, partly fanned by a violent crackdown by Indian troops. India accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgents by providing weapons and training. Pakistan denied this claim.

In 1999, India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers by now, fought a high-altitude limited war in Kargil, a remote area in Indian-controlled Kashmir, after Pakistani soldiers crossed the border. 

Although both countries have maintained a fragile ceasefire since 2003, they regularly exchange fire across the contested border.

Pakistan announced Thursday it will cancel visas for Indian nationals and close its skies to carriers from India, as well as suspend trade, following the deadly attack by gunmen in Pahalgam.

India's Foreign Ministry said earlier on Thursday all visas issued to Pakistani nationals stand revoked with effect from Sunday.

The measures mark an escalation of tension between the two longtime rivals.

Indian media reported the country's intelligence agencies traced the digital footprints of Pahalgam attackers to safehouses in Karachi, and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The findings were based on forensic analysis and statements from survivors.

A report by Indian newspaper Hindustan Times quoted unnamed senior officials saying the attackers used a control room similar to the one that was used in the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. 

The reports could not be independently verified.

There were five to six attackers, who shot for about ten minutes in three major spots at the Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam. They arrived from the nearby pine forests carrying rifles.

Survivors' accounts said they approached the tourists and asked them their religion. They were asked to recite Islamic verses and if they failed, they were shot, reported Indian news channel NDTV.

Kashmiri students in the northern Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh reported being harassed and intimated in the aftermath of the attack.

They were called "terrorists" and asked to leave rented apartments or university hostels, said Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami. 

"It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity," Khuehami said.

Twenty Kashmiri students in the city of Dehradun, which is the capital of the northwestern state of Dehradun, had to rush to the airport after being warned by a right-wing Hindu nationalist group called the Hindu Rashtra Dal.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he was in touch with state governments where students had reported feeling unsafe.

The ambassadors of European Union (EU) countries stationed in Indiaobserved a minute's silence in memory of the victims of the Pahalgam attack, which took place in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and left two dozens of tourists dead. 

"The EU family stands with India in this moment of mourning," EU ambassador in India Herve Delphin posted on his X account.

The board of the Federation of European Businesses in India (FEBI) also took part.

This comes after the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, sent condolences to the victims and the people of India, saying she condemns the "heinous terrorist attack."

"The EU stands firm against terrorism," Kallas said.
 

Kashmiris have long borne the consequences of fighting in the region amid a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, two countries that have long been at odds with each other.

But Kashmiris are angry, especially following the attack on the tourists visiting the Indian-controlled territory.

"Kashmiris are on the streets against the killing of humanity and our guests — we condemn it," one man tells DW.

"This is an extremely tragic and heartbreaking incident. People came here to enjoy but unfortunately lost their lives," says another woman.

"Terrorism has no religion — terrorism is neither Hindu nor Muslim," a domestic tourist visiting the region says. 

DW correspondent Adil Bhat is reporting from Srinagar, Kashmir, and described the mood there as one of a "tense calm" feeling.

There is a sense of "profound grief and anger" following the attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir that saw at least 26 tourists killed, including a Nepalese national.

The scenic spot where the shooting took place, close to the picturesque mountainous town of Pahalgam in the Baisaran Valley, is only accessible by foot or on horseback.

Adil said there were protests against the attack, as have been reported by local outlets too, amongst people in the region.

The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for example, called a strike on Wednesday in the city of Jammu in the Indian-controlled territory of Jammu and Kashmir, according to local reports.

"Tourists are trying to leave and people in the tourism business — like those who run hotels and or drive taxis — are receiving cancellations," Adil said.