Tensions between India Oui and Pakistan escalated rapidly after the massacre of 25 Indian tourists and the conflicted Nepali citizens in the Himalayas-Kashmir region on Tuesday, prompting warnings of a return to the conflict.
A previously unknown Islamic extremist group called the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack, and India quickly linked it to Pakistan, but produced no public evidence. Pakistan denied involvement.
In a series of punitive measures announced from Tuesday, India has downgraded diplomatic relations, suspended its important water sharing treaties and revoked all visas issued to Pakistani citizens.
In retaliation, Pakistan closed airspace for all India-owned or Indian-operated airlines and halted all trade with India, including with third countries.
In 2019, the Narendra Modi government began a severe crackdown on India-controlled Kashmir security and revoked the special status of the region, which had been granting limited autonomy since 1949.
The move fulfilled the longtime Hindu nationalist pledge and was widely welcomed across India, but angered much of the territory itself. Contrary to the background of widespread oppression, rebel violence fell and tourists returned to the area.
New rules have been implemented that allow outsiders to purchase land in Kashmir for the first time. This was thought by many that the Bharatiyajanata Party (BJP) saw them as an attempt to confiscate from the land and change the demographics of Muslims in the region.
Under special status, Kashmir was able to define who the permanent residents were, preventing income from other parts of India from applying for employment, scholarships or land purchases.
The new residential rules have led to accusations that India is expanding the number of people eligible to live and work in Kashmir and trying to change the demographic composition of the region. The Resistance Front cited the claim when it allegedly attacked Tuesday.
“Acts of war”
Some of the belligerent rhetoric that appears in the past few days is unfamiliar with the war familiar from past crises between India and Pakistan, but India’s decision to suspend the 1964 Treaty of Induswaters is a huge deal.
The treaty, which has survived a long-term unending crisis, is one of the world’s most successful water sharing agreements, allowing both countries to share the waters of the river system, the lifelines of the two countries.
Due to the large-scale reliance on water of the Indus system for irrigation in Pakistan agriculture, the treaty is important to the country. Pakistan says interference in water flows is treated as an “act of war.”
Source: Guardian