Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.
The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists.
The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan.
Photo: Reuters
New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group that called itself the Kashmir Resistance.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said all visas issued to Pakistani nationals would be revoked with effect from Sunday. It also advised Indian citizens not to travel to Pakistan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in the eastern state of Bihar yesterday vowed to pursue, track and punish terrorists and their backers, after police said they identified two of the shooters as Pakistani.
Modi folded his hands in prayer in remembrance for the 26 men who were shot and killed in a meadow in the Pahalgam region of Indian Kashmir, exhorting thousands gathered at the venue to do the same.
“We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi said, referring to the attackers, without referring to their identities or naming Pakistan.
His comments are bound to further inflame ties between the nuclear-armed rivals after India late on Wednesday downgraded ties with Pakistan, suspending a six-decade old water treaty and closing the only land border crossing between the neighbors.
Pakistani Minister of Energy Awais Lekhari called the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty “an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move.”
Police in Indian Kashmir yesterday published notices naming three suspected militants “involved in” the attack, and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest.
Two of the three suspected militants are Pakistani nationals, the notices said. They did not say how the men were identified.
India and Pakistan each control separate parts of Kashmir and both claim it in full.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Wednesday said a Cabinet committee on security was briefed on the cross-border linkages of the attack, the worst on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.
Misri did not offer any proof of the linkages or provide any more details.
Dozens of protesters yesterday gathered outside Pakistan’s embassy in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave, shouting slogans and pushing against police barricades.
The Indus treaty, mediated by the World Bank and signed in 1960, regulated the sharing of waters of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan. It has withstood two wars between the neighbors since then and severe strains in ties at other times.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS