India said on Saturday it had banned the import of goods coming from or crossing through Pakistan into India and barred Pakistani ships as tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours rise.
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade said the ban will take effect immediately. “This restriction is imposed in the interest of national security and public policy,” it said.
In response, Pakistan has also said that it will stop all border trade, closing its airspace to Indian carriers and expelling Indian diplomats. It has also warned that any attempt to prevent the flow of river water promised under a decades-old treaty between the two nations would be considered an act of war.
Tensions increased following an exchanged of gunfire between the two nations across their heavily militarised de facto border in contested Kashmir since an April 22 attack that New Delhi blames on Islamabad, a claim it rejects.
Suspected militants killed at least 26 tourists in the attack on a mountain destination in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley.
The Muslim-majority Kashmir region is claimed by both India and Pakistan, and has been the site of wars, insurgency and diplomatic standoffs.
It comes as the Pakistani army conducted a training launch of a surface-to-surface missile weapons system on Saturday.
“Pakistan today conducted a successful training launch of the Abdali Weapon System, a surface to surface missile with a range of 450 kilometres,” the military said.
“The launch was aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters, including the missile's advanced navigation system and enhanced manoeuvrability features,” it added.
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated those behind the successful test.
Missiles are not fired towards the border area with India, they are normally fired into the Arabian Sea or the deserts of south-west Balochistan province.
India's navy said on April 27 that its vessels had successfully undertaken anti-ship firings to “revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems and crew for long-range precision offensive strike.”
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said days before that Pakistan had “credible intelligence” of India planning to attack it within days.
