Pakistan shuts airspace to Indian airlines and suspends trade

Pakistan has announced the closure of its airspace to all Indian airlines and the suspension of trade with New Delhi with immediate effect, following a National Security Committee meeting in Islamabad on Thursday.

The move comes after New Delhi downgraded diplomatic ties with Islamabad and suspended a treaty on the use of the waters of the Indus River system by the two nations.

“Pakistan vehemently rejects the Indian announcement to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance… Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty… will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force,” Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s office said in the statement. The treaty contains no provision for unilateral suspension, it noted.

Pakistan’s retaliatory measures include the suspension of key bilateral agreements and cross-border links, including the Wagah border post. The statement added that Pakistan’s airspace would be closed immediately to all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines. All trade with India, including shipments to and from third countries through Pakistan, was also suspended.

The authorities added that all visas issued to Indian nationals under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) have been suspended. Indian citizens currently in Pakistan under SVES, excluding Sikh pilgrims, have been instructed to leave within 48 hours.

Islamabad further declared India’s defense, naval, and air advisers based in the Pakistani capital persona non grata. It also ordered the reduction of staff at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to 30 diplomats and personnel, effective April 30.

The measures mirror those taken by New Delhi on Wednesday. The move came in response to a brutal attack in the India-administered Kashmir region which left 26 people dead – most of them tourists – and injured dozens more. The assault occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Baisaran Valley, a scenic destination in Pahalgam known as a ‘mini Switzerland’. The Resistance Front, a militant group believed to be linked to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, has reportedly claimed responsibility.

New Delhi said its measures will remain in place “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”

Islamabad rejected India’s allegation that Pakistan was linked to the violence in Kashmir, accusing New Delhi of oppressing the region and its majority-Muslim population.

“In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to link the Pahalgam attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and defeat logic,” the prime minister’s office stated.It added that India “must resist the temptation to exploit such tragic incidents to its advantage and take full responsibility for its failure to provide security to the people.”

“India’s worn-out narrative of victimhood cannot obfuscate its own culpability in fomenting terrorism on Pakistan’s soil, nor can it distract attention from its systematic and state sponsored oppression and human rights violations,” Islamabad added, claiming that it has “incontrovertible proof” of Indian-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan.

Kashmir, a restive region along the India-Pakistan border, has long been a flashpoint between the two countries, with both claiming it as their own. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of backing cross-border terrorism, while Islamabad accuses India of committing human rights violations against the region’s Muslim-majority population.