Modi vows to punish Kashmir attackers as India closes land border with Pakistan
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed on Thursday to hunt down, track and punish terrorists and their supporters to respond heavily to the deadly armed attack on Kashmir tourists, where police identified two gunmen as Pakistan.
In a speech in Bihar, eastern India, Modi prays to commemorate 26 people
Shooting was launched in Pahargham area of Kashmir, India, and thousands of venues were advised to do the same.
“We will pursue them to the end of the earth,” Modi said. The attackers Modi refers to do not need to mention their identities or name Pakistan.
However, his comments will inevitably further incite links between nuclear weapons competitors, as India suspended six decades of water treaty after relegated ties with Pakistan on Wednesday night and closed the only land border between neighbors.
Pakistan's electricity minister Awais Lekhari said the moratorium on the Indian Waters Treaty “an act of water war; a timid illegal act”.
Embassy protests
Indian-managed Kashmir police issued a notice on Thursday, naming three suspected militants who were “involved” the attack and announced rewards for information that led to the arrest.
The notice said two of the three suspicious militants were Pakistani nationals. They didn't say how these people agreed.
India and Pakistan control various parts of Kashmir and are fully claimed.
Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri said on Wednesday that the Cabinet Security Committee introduced the cross-border links of the attack, the country's worst civilian in nearly two decades.
Misri is a top diplomat in the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has not provided any proof of contact or provided more details.
Misri said New Delhi will also withdraw its defense adviser in Pakistan and reduce its staff size in Islamabad from 55 to 30.
Modi also called for a full-party meeting with the opposition to introduce them to the government's response to the attack.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pakistani embassy in the diplomatic enclave of New Delhi on Thursday, shouting slogans and pushing police barricades.
Pakistani officials meet
In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif plans to hold a National Security Council meeting to discuss Pakistan's response.
The Indus Treaty, introduced by the World Bank and signed in 1960, stipulates the sharing of the Indus and its tributaries between India and Pakistan. Since then, it has endured two wars between neighbors, and at other times it has serious connections.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan expelled Indian envoys, and did not issue its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked Kashmir's semi-autonomous status in 2019.
Tuesday's attack was seen as a setback to Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, an important achievement in revoking Jamu and Kashmir State's special status and bringing peace and development into the longer Muslim Muslim-Mov Mountains.
When suspected militants opened fire on tourists in India's Jamu and Kashmir territory, 26 people were killed and 17 were injured, the country's worst attack in nearly two decades.
India often accuses Islamic Pakistan of participating in the Kashmir rebellion, but Islamabad said it would only provide diplomatic and moral support for the need for self-determination.
Since the uprising in 1989, thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir, but in recent years, the tourism industry has surged in scenic areas.
