Pakistan has announced a series of diplomatic reprisals against India and asked for evidence to support the statements of the Indian government that Islamabad was involved in the Kashmir attack.
The alleged rebels killed at least 26 people on Tuesday in the picturesque tourist resort of Pahalgam in the deadliest attack of this quarter of a century of cashmere administered by the Indians. A declaration published in the name of the Fatrite Resistance (TRF), which would be an emanation from the armed group of Lashkar-E-Taiba based in Pakistanai, claimed the responsibility of the attack.
Prime Minister Narendra amended in a speech Thursday to chase men armed with Pahalgam at the “extremities of the earth”. New Delhi also suspended India’s participation in a water sharing agreement and sealed its main land border with Pakistan among other reprisals.
On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also interrupted an irrigation project of the canal, one day after India retired from the Industry Water Treaty in a decision that was worried about Pakistan’s water supply.
In a statement published by his office, Sharif said that even if Pakistan was concerned about the loss of the lives of tourists [in Indian-administered Kashmir]”The committee examined the Indian measures announced on April 23, 2025 and qualified them unilateral, unjust, with political motivation, extremely irresponsible and devoid of legal merit.”
“In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to liage the Pahalgame attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and logic of defeat,” added the press release.
Pakistani Minister of Defense, Khawaja Asif, later told Al Jazeera: “I refute, strongly refutes, the allegations leveled by the Indian government” and added that the country has “no link” with armed groups operating in the cashmere administered by the Indians.
Islamabad also announced the imminent closure of the Wagah border with India, but said it would remain open until April 30. All Indian citizens, excluding Sikhs pilgrims, were ordered to leave in 48 hours.
Pakistan has also suspended the visas issued to the Indians as part of the SAARC program, reduces Indian High Commission for Islamabad to 30 and closed their airspace to all Indian aircraft, while all commercial activities with India have been suspended.
Reporting Haripur to Pakistan, Kamal Hyder of Al Jazeera said it was a “tit-for-tat response”.
“All eyes will be on what India will then do, because Modi said there will be a quick response. He meets his party leaders in India, which will be important,” he said.
“But Islamabad did not chop his words either by saying that any military response will also be made on the Pakistani side,” he added.
‘Please don’t think that cashmerics are your enemies’
Pakistan and India both claim cashmere in its entirety but administer parts separately.
Thursday, cashmere police administered by India released sketches and announced a reward to obtain information on three suspects suspected of being behind Tuesday attack.
A reward of 2 million Indian rupees (around $ 23,000) was offered for any information leading to their capture.
Police said suspects are members of the Lashkar-E-Taiba group; They were named Hashim Musa (alias Sulaiman), Ali Bhai (alias Talha Bhai) and Adil Hussain Thoker.
According to police, Musa and Bhai are Pakistani nationals.
Thoker, also known as Adil Guree, is a cashmere resident, and the investigators linked him to the attack on the basis of the testimonies of the wife of one of the victims.
A senior police official told Al Jazeera that more than 1,500 people had been detained for interrogation in the continuous investigation.
The region remains tense of increased security and a discomfort widespread in the region, two days after the attack on Pahalgam.
But stores and businesses started reopening after a closure observed yesterday.
Local commercial organizations and political leaders had called for closure while they went down to the street to condemn the deadly assault.
“Everything seems dark. We do not know what the future reserves for this place,” said Mehraj Ahmad Malik, who sells dried fruit in the main city of Srinagar.
“Everything was in excitement two days ago, and now there is fear and silence.”
The chief minister of Jammu-et-Cachemire, Omar Abdullah, expressed a deep sadness of the recent attack on Pahalgam, recognizing the loss of “25 guests who came here to enjoy their holidays” and praising a resident who “sacrificed his life to save people there”.
“The residents of cashmere have come out and expressed the same thing: that they were not involved and that the attack was not for them,” he told the India news agency in India.
“Please don’t think cashmiris are your enemies; We are not guilty … We have also suffered for 35 years. ”
