MUMBAI () – Indian authorities have called for the highest-ranking Pakistani official in New Delhi, according to reports from local news outlets on Thursday. This move comes one day after India declared steps to reduce diplomatic engagement with Islamabad amid deteriorating relations between the two nuclear powers. The tensions escalated following a violent militant assault in Kashmir.
The day following an assault where alleged militants murdered 26 individuals at a popular tourist spot in Kashmir—the most devastating strike against civilians within India in almost twenty years—Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated that the incident involved foreign interference. In response, New Delhi announced plans to halt a sixty-year-old water distribution agreement along with shutting down the sole overland pass linking the neighboring countries.
Misri stated that India plans to withdraw its defense attachés from Pakistan and cut down the staffing level at its mission in Islamabad to 30 people from the current 55.
India has summoned the top diplomat in the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi, local media reported, to give notice that all defence advisers in the Pakistani mission were persona non grata and given a week to leave, one of the measures Misri announced on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited leaders from opposing political parties to an assembly on Thursday. The purpose of this gathering is to inform them about the government’s reaction to the recent assault.
In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was set to convene a meeting of the National Security Committee to address Pakistan’s reaction, as stated by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in an X post.
The Indus Water Treaty, facilitated by the World Bank, divided the waters of the Indus River and its tributaries among neighboring countries and established rules for their distribution. This agreement has managed to endure through multiple conflicts between those nations.
Misri stated that India would put the treaty on hold.
Even prior to announcing their most recent actions, diplomatic relations between these two nations have been fragile due to Pakistan expelling India’s envoy and failing to post its own ambassador in New Delhi following India's decision to revoke Kashmir's semiautonomous status back in 2019.
The assault on Tuesday is viewed as a hindrance to the significant accomplishments touted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party following the repeal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. They had claimed this move would bring about greater peace and developmental progress to the historically volatile Muslim-dominated area.
(Reported by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan)