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India’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced that Pakistani nationals will not be allowed to travel to India under the SAARC visa exemption programme.
The main border crossing linking the two countries will be closed, and there will also be a suspension of a water-sharing treaty and the expulsion of diplomats.
Any visas previously issued under the SAARC scheme “are deemed cancelled”, and any Pakistani national in India with these visas has been given 48 hours to leave.
This comes a day after 26 people were killed by gunmen in an attack in Kashmir.
India has further demanded that Pakistan renounce “support for cross-border terrorism,” something Islamabad denies.
Pakistan’s government has said its National Security Council, the country’s highest military and security body, would meet on Thursday.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the Pakistani foreign ministry said it was “concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives” and expressed condolences.
An overnight Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 23 people, as Arab mediators worked on a proposal to end the war with Hamas that would include a five-to-seven-year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike, which set several tents ablaze, burning people alive. The military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters are embedded in densely populated areas. Another six people were killed in separate strikes, including 5-year-old twin girls.
France, Germany and Britain meanwhile said Israel’s seven-week blockade on all imports to Gaza, including food, was “intolerable,” in unusually strong criticism from three of the country’s closest allies.
