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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to “identify, track and punish” the people responsible for gunning down more than two dozen tourists in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, an atrocity that shocked Indians and fanned fears of a conflict with Pakistan.
At least 26 people were killed and 17 wounded in Tuesday’s attack in Pahalgam, a tourist site in Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim and partly occupy, confronting each other along a militarised “Line of Control”. India has downgraded ties with Pakistan over the attack.
“I say to the whole world, India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers,” said Modi, speaking in English in the Indian state of Bihar. “We will pursue them to the ends of the earth.
“India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Pahalgam will not go unpunished,” Modi said, in his response to the deadliest attack on Indians in Kashmir since a 2019 suicide bombing that killed 40 paramilitary personnel. “Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.”
Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, told local television channels on Wednesday that Pakistan was not involved in the attack, and said India had provided “no evidence”.
Police in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said that two of the three suspects were Pakistani nationals and identified them as part of a group behind one of India’s worst mass murders of civilians.
In a “Wanted” notice published online, they described the men as “LeT terrorists”, a reference to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a militant group that was responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, which killed 175 people.
Since Tuesday’s attack, India has sharply downgraded relations with Pakistan, which it accuses of supporting attacks on its territory.
India has ordered the closing of its only border crossing with Pakistan, the expulsion of military advisers from Pakistan’s diplomatic missions in India, the withdrawal of its own advisers from Pakistan, and a reduction in the number of diplomats in each country to 30 from 55.
India suspended its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty — an unprecedented measure set to hit farming in Pakistan at the start of the sowing season in a country struggling with a deep economic crisis.
Pakistan’s senior civilian and military leadership are meeting on Thursday to discuss Pakistan’s response to the measures announced by India.
“If there is any evidence, any sign, then share it with us,” Dar, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said of India’s accusations in an interview with Dunya News on Wednesday. “There will be a tit-for-tat reply, and not an iota less than they have done,” he added.
The diplomatic crisis threatens Pakistan’s fragile economic recovery after two years of stagflation and surging power costs have shredded household finances and badly affected industries.
The Indus Waters Treaty is vital to Pakistan because it guarantees access to the three western rivers of the Indus basin — its main source of water for agriculture, power, and daily life.
Farmers said any disruption to water supply would be a major blow to a country where agriculture accounts for a quarter of GDP.
Farooq Tariq, a farmer and activist from Toba Tek Singh in central Punjab, said the decision could have a “devastating impact on the agriculture of Pakistan”. “[Farmers in Sindh and Punjab] are in much more danger of losing water while there is already . . . water scarcity,” he said.
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