No let-up in outrage against Pakistan a week after Pahalgam terrorist attack
There is no let-up in the resentment sweeping across India amid calls for military retaliation even as New Delhi wielded the diplomatic axe against Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack in which terrorists killed 26 in Indian Kashmir's Pahalgam.
India claims the attack was carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists with local help in an idyllic meadow of Pahalgam. Survivors of the ghastly attack said the gunmen asked tourists their names and religion before killing only men. Media reports said gunmen pulled down the trousers of some victims to confirm their faith before deciding to shoot them dead.
New Delhi responded swiftly after the April 22 attack by downgrading diplomatic ties, scrapping visas issued to Pakistanis, and suspending the Indus River Treaty signed between the South Asian neighbours in 1960. The World Bank-brokered river water sharing agreement gave India control of the eastern rivers -- Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, while Pakistan was allowed to have control of the western rivers -- Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
A seemingly rattled Pakistani establishment said any attempt by New Delhi to stop or divert the water will be considered "an act of war."
Amid the diplomatic onslaught by its eastern neighbour, the Pakistani government has closed its airspace to all Indian owned or Indian-operated airlines and suspended trade with India. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a passing out parade of army cadets at Pakistan Military Academy that his government was open to "any neutral, transparent and credible investigation" into the attack.
Reaction to the attack within India has been vitriolic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to "identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers to the ends of the Earth." He vowed in a public speech a day after the ghastly incident that "terrorists behind the killings, along with their backers, will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine."
"Our enemies have dared to attack the country's soul... India's spirit will never be broken by terrorism," Modi added.
While the nation of 1.4 billion is speaking in unison and backing any action the government takes, there have been dissenting voices within some Indian opposition parties over the attacks. The main opposition Indian National Congress party on Monday distanced itself from remarks by one of its leaders who questioned survivors' claims that terrorists asked victims' religion before killing them.
Security forces have questioned hundreds of individuals in Indian Kashmir as part of the probe into the killings. Several homes of suspected terrorists have been razed by government authorities in Kashmir as the entire country demands action against Pakistan and cross-border terror largely seen to be perpetrated with aid and funding from Islamabad's military establishment.
The mastermind of the September 11 (9/11) attacks in the US, Osama Bin Laden, was killed by US Navy Seals on May 1, 2011 in his hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, which is about 160km from federal capital Islamabad.
US President Donald Trump has refused to mediate between the feuding South Asian neighbours, making some bizarre remarks when asked about the Pahalgam terror attacks. "India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir for 1,000 years," he quipped.
