Suhail Shaheen, Head of the Taliban's* Political Office in Doha and Afghanistan's Ambassador-designate to Qatar, strongly condemned the Pahalgam terrorist attack on 22 April that claimed the lives of 25 Indians and one Nepalese citizen.
On Wednesday, the interim Afghan government's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi also condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in a statement.
The Pahalgam terrorist attack has sparked a fresh wave of diplomatic and military tensions between India and Pakistan. There were reports of
ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) by Pakistani forces Thursday evening onwards, prompting retaliatory fire from the Indian Army.
India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said that there are "cross-border linkages" to the attack, reportedly claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba** (LeT).
In a Thursday statement MEA also informed that India has revoked the visas of all Pakistani citizens in the country, asking them to leave India by 27 April. At the same time, MEA has strongly advised Indian citizens against travelling to Pakistan and urged those present there to immediately return to India. The CCS also decided to downgrade diplomatic ties with Pakistan, including the expulsion of tri-service advisors from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and reducing the diplomatic staff strength from 55 to 30.
Following India's moves, Pakistan's National Security Council (NSC), chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, met on Thursday. A statement by Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that any attempt to "stop or divert" the flow of the Indus River system would be considered as an "act of war".
Pakistan's NSC also decided to hold the Simla Pact of 1972 in abeyance among other decisions, which also include cutting down trade ties and closing Pakistani airspace to Indian airlines.
**banned terrorist outfit