SRINAGAR – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to bring to justice those responsible for a deadly assault on tourists in the Pahalgam region of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
During a speech in Bihar, Modi paid tribute to the 26 victims, asking the audience to join him in silent remembrance. “We will not rest until those behind this attack, and those who support them, are held accountable,” he stated, without identifying the assailants or making direct references to Pakistan.
The attack has further escalated already strained relations between India and Pakistan. Just a day earlier, India downgraded diplomatic ties by suspending the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty and shutting down the only operational land border crossing between the two countries.
Responding to the developments, Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Leghari condemned the suspension of the treaty as an act of “water warfare” and labeled it an “unlawful and cowardly move.”
Meanwhile, authorities in the disputed region released the names of three suspects believed to be involved in the attack and announced cash rewards for information leading to their capture.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, addressing a security committee, claimed there were “cross-border connections” to the attack—described as the worst on civilians in nearly 20 years—though no evidence was publicly disclosed.
India also announced plans to scale down its diplomatic mission in Islamabad, reducing staff numbers from 55 to 30 and withdrawing its defense advisers. Reports suggest India has informed Pakistan’s diplomatic staff that certain personnel would be expelled within a week.
In a show of public outrage, demonstrators rallied outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, chanting slogans and clashing briefly with security forces.
On the other side, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a high-level National Security Committee meeting to deliberate on a response to India’s latest moves.
The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, has long been a cornerstone of water-sharing between the two nations, surviving multiple conflicts and diplomatic breakdowns. The current crisis, however, has pushed tensions to a new high.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors had already deteriorated after India unilaterally revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019—a move that led to Pakistan expelling the Indian envoy and declining to appoint its own ambassador in New Delhi.
The recent attack casts a shadow over the Indian government’s narrative that the revocation of Article 370 had brought peace and development to the restive, Muslim-majority region.
