'Full support to govt for any action': Rahul Gandhi after all-party meet on Pahalgam massacre

After attending an all-party meeting this evening where the leaders were briefed by intelligence and government officials, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi told reporters, "All political parties have uniformly condemned it and the Opposition has given full support to the government to take any action."

"We want peace to be restored in Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible," said Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Gandhi will visit Kashmir's Anantnag on Thursday, where the injured are admitted to the district hospital.

"We are with the Center in the fight against terrorism. The country should fight it unitedly. The heads of all political parties have given the Prime Minister a message," Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay said, seeking a meeting with PM Narendra Modi.

PM Modi's message against terrorism

Earlier in the day, PM Modi sent a strong message against terrorism to the world and said the terrorists and their backers will pay unimaginable costs for the attack on innocent tourists in Kashmir's Pahalgam.

Addressing a rally in Bihar's Madhubani, Modi said: "From the soil of Bihar I tell the whole world that India will identify them and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the end of the earth. India's spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished."

"Every effort will be made to ensure justice is done," he said, adding that the entire country is grieving the merciless killings.

"Some of the victims speak Bengali, some Kannada, some Marathi, some Gujarati, some  Oriya or some from the land of Bihar. Some lost their brother, some son, some life partner. But the attack is not just on the innocent tourists, but on the soul of India," he said, adding that India stands together in the face of terrorism.

The Indian Government on Wednesday evening suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan indefinitely as a part of some strict measures taken against Islamabad over the "cross-border linkages" that emerged during the investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack.

India has also asked all Pakistani nationals to leave the country by April 29 and suspended all visas, including medical ones and permits given to diplomats under the SAARC scheme.

In a tit-for-tat move, Pakistan also announced that it will reduce the Indian diplomatic staff at the High Commission to 30 persons.

India had announced the same on Wednesday. Both countries have now declared that their air force, naval diplomats, and support staff at the respective High Commissions are Persona Non Grata.

Following India's decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan said, "Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power."

Islamabad has threatened to suspend all agreements between the two countries, including the Simla Pact of 1972, which validates the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, media reports said.

Pahalgam Massacre

Twenty-six tourists died after terrorists identified them as non-Muslims and gunned them down in Baisaran meadows, a popular destination in Pahalgam.

World leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, condemned the attack.

The terrorists, who were apparently in camouflage, reportedly asked the victims to chant Islamic verse, pull down their pants to check circumcision in a bid to confirm their Hindu identities before gunning them down. One Nepali national was among those killed.