- India’s Foreign Ministry said Pakistani nationals will not be allowed to travel to India under the SAARC visa exemption programme. Any visas previously issued under this scheme “are deemed cancelled” and any Pakistani national in India with one of these visas has 48 hours to leave.
- India’s defence minister has pledged a swift response to those who carried out and planned the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people, all men, in Kashmir.
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India has announced the suspension of a decades-old water treaty with Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack in Kashmir.
- The treaty’s origins trace back to the partition of India in August 1947, when British rule ended and India and Pakistan emerged as two sovereign nations.
- With both nations relying on the same river systems for irrigation and agriculture, an urgent need arose to negotiate an equitable sharing of water resources.
- After nine years of discussion, facilitated by the World Bank, then-Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru and former Pakistani President Mohammed Ayub Khan signed the IWT in September 1960.
- Under the treaty, India controls the three eastern rivers – Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas – while Pakistan controls the three western rivers – Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus. India is obligated to allow the waters of the western rivers to flow into Pakistan with limited exceptions.