New Delhi: A day after the terror attack on tourists in Kashmir, India on Wednesday (April 23) expelled Pakistan’s military attaches and pulled out its own ones from Islamabad, scaled down diplomatic missions, suspended its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty, closed the only operational land border crossing and barred Pakistani nationals from availing the SAARC visa exemption scheme.On Tuesday, 25 Indians, most of them tourists, and one Nepali citizen were killed, while several others were injured in Pahalgam in one of the worst targeted attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir.It marked the highest civilian death toll in a single terror incident in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.After the meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS), foreign secretary Vikram Misri read out a prepared statement outlining its decisions, but did not take any questions.Misri’s remarks were the first official statement to directly implicate Pakistan.“At the briefing to the CCS, the cross-border linkages of the terrorist attack were brought out,” he said. “It was noted that this attack came in the wake of the successful holding of elections in the Union territory and its steady progress towards economic growth and development.”He added that the committee had reviewed the overall security situation and directed all forces to maintain “high vigil”.“It resolved that the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account. As with the recent extradition of Tahawwur Rana, India will be unrelenting in the pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror or conspired to make them possible,” Misri stated.The foreign secretary listed five steps India would take in response – measures that will further degrade diplomatic relations with Pakistan, already near-frozen for almost a decade.First, Misri stated that the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 will be “held in abeyance with immediate effect, until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism”.Last year, India had for the second time formally sought a revision of the treaty, which governs the sharing of the waters of the Indus River and its tributaries.The two countries are also locked in a long-standing disagreement over the Kishanganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects.According to the treaty’s Article XII (4), it will remain in force “until terminated by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two governments”.Secondly, the Integrated Check Post at Attari will be “closed with immediate effect”. “Those who have crossed over with valid endorsements may return through that route before May 1, 2025,” he stated.Under the India-Pakistan visa system, visitors can only enter and exit from the same port of entry.Further, Misri noted that Pakistani nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) visas.“Any SVES visas issued in the past to Pakistani nationals are deemed cancelled. Any Pakistani national currently in India under a SVES visa has 48 hours to leave India,” he stated.The last two measures were for downgrading diplomatic representation, which had already been much-reduced.The Indian foreign secretary said that the “defence/military, naval and air advisers in the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi are declared persona non grata” and have a week to leave India.The Pakistani charge d’affaires Saad Ahmad Warraich was summoned and handed the persona non grata notes, it is learnt.“India will be withdrawing its own defence/navy/air advisers from the Indian high commission in Islamabad. These posts in the respective high commissions are deemed annulled. Five support staff of the service advisers will also be withdrawn from both high commissions,” he said.Besides, the overall strength of the high commissions will be brought down to 30 from the present 55 through further reductions, to be effected by May 1, 2025, he added.India and Pakistan had withdrawn their high commissioners after the dilution of Article 370 of the Indian constitution that gave special autonomous powers to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar announced on X that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had convened a meeting of the National Security Committee on Thursday “to respond to the Indian government’s statement of this evening”.Earlier in the day, Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif had denied any Pakistani involvement in the Pahalgam terror attack and claimed that it could be a “false flag operation”.“We cannot ever rule this out, the possibility will be there,” he said in an interview to Hum TV.The Pakistan foreign office also issued a statement that Islamabad was “concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” it added.A similar flashpoint occurred in February 2019, when 40 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama. In response, India revoked Pakistan’s Most-Favoured Nation status and carried out air strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Pakistan conducted retaliatory strikes, claiming to have dropped bombs inside Indian territory.