Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the punishment meted out by India for the Pahalgam terror attack will be “bigger than what the terrorists imagine”.

Twenty-six persons were killed and 17 others were injured in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

Here is more on this and other top updates:

  • Modi vowed that India “will identify, trace and punish every terrorist and their backers” involved in the attack and will “pursue them to the ends of the Earth”. India’s “spirit will never be broken by terrorism”, he said at a public meeting in Bihar’s Madhubani. “Terrorism will not go unpunished. Every effort will be made to make sure that justice is done,” Modi said. “The entire nation is one in this resolve.”
  • The Congress’ working committee on Thursday said that the “deliberate targeting of Hindus was done to inflame passions” in India and appealed for calm “in the face of this grave provocation”. In its resolution, the party demanded a comprehensive analysis of the “intelligence failures and security lapses” that led to the attack. The Opposition party also accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of “exploiting” the attack through official and “proxy social media platforms to sow further discord, mistrust, polarisation and division”.
  • The Union government will hold an all-party meeting on Thursday evening to brief political leaders on the terror attack.
  • India on Wednesday night summoned Saad Ahmad Warraich, Pakistan’s top diplomat in New Delhi, and handed him the persona non-grata note for the country’s military diplomats, NDTV reported, quoting unidentified officials. This came hours after India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced that it was declaring the Pakistani defence, military, naval and air advisers in New Delhi as persona non grata. The Pakistani officers were ordered to leave India within a week. In diplomatic parlance, a persona non grata is a foreign diplomat or staff member deemed unwelcome by the host country.
  • Jammu and Kashmir’s Resident Commission in New Delhi shared helpline numbers for students from the Union Territory studying in other parts of the country.
  • The United States on Wednesday reiterated its “do not travel” advisory for Jammu and Kashmir issued to US citizens. The US embassy in New Delhi said that terror attacks and “violent civil unrest are possible” in the Union Territory. The warning does not apply to eastern Ladakh and its capital Leh. “Violence happens sporadically in this area and is common along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan,” the embassy reiterated. “It also occurs in tourist spots in the Kashmir valley: Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam.”

The attack took place on Tuesday in the Baisaran area, which is located nearly 4 km from the tourist spot of Pahalgam in Anantnag district. Two to three militants fired indiscriminately at a group of tourists, most of whom were from outside the state.

This is the first major terrorist attack targeting civilians in Kashmir since the Union government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday vowed a “loud and clear response” to the terror attack.

On Wednesday night, India said it has decided to suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with immediate effect until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” stops its support for cross-border terrorism. The announcement came following a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the highest decision-making body on matters of national security.

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