India closes Pakistan border crossing after deadly Kashmir attack

Modi government also suspends visas and expels Pakistani diplomats over 'support for terrorism'

Funerals for the victims of the Kashmir attack were taking place on Wednesday after 26 people were killed. EPA

India on Wednesday closed a key border crossing with Pakistan and accused its neighbour of support for terrorism after a gun attack in Kashmir killed 26 people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is also suspending a visa scheme, expelling Pakistani diplomats and putting a water treaty "in abeyance" in response to the shooting. A group called The Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Mr Modi, who cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the attack, chaired a meeting of a security committee on Wednesday evening, which was briefed on "cross-border linkages" related to the killings, India's government said. It said 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali had been killed, with several others injured.

The 65-year-old Indus Water treaty, under which the two nuclear-armed neighbours share access to rivers, will be suspended until Pakistan "credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism", India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday.

He said the Wagah-Attari border crossing, known for an elaborate daily ceremony involving Indian and Pakistani soldiers, will be closed with immediate effect. People who have already crossed have until May 1 to return to their homeland.

Pakistani citizens will no longer be allowed to travel to India under a visa scheme for South Asian countries, and those already there under the programme have only 48 hours to leave. The scheme covers certain categories of people such as businesspeople, politicians, journalists and athletes.

The Wagah-Attari border crossing is known for a nightly ceremony involving soldiers from India and Pakistan. AFP

In a fourth step, Pakistani defence, naval and air advisers stationed at the high commission in New Delhi are being declared unwelcome and have a week to leave India. Mr Modi's government will withdraw equivalent staff from its mission in Islamabad.

Mr Misri said Indian security forces would be kept in a state of "high vigilance". India "will be unrelenting in the pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror", he said.

Indian military helicopters were on Wednesday scouring dense forests in Kashmir in pursuit of the gunmen who opened fire in Pahalgam, a Himalayan summer resort. The attack was the deadliest in more than two decades in the disputed region.

Home Minister Amit Shah visited the area and laid wreaths on the bodies of the victims. He told their families the “culprits of the dastardly attacks will not be spared”.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it was "concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives" in what it called an illegally occupied part of the territory. It offered condolences and wishes of speedy recovery to victims.