BSF personnel stand guard at the Integrated Check Post near Attari-Wagah border, in Amritsar district, Punjab, May 2, 2025
| Photo Credit:
SHIVA SHARMA
India banned the import of all goods originating from or transiting through Pakistan as tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations escalate in the wake of a deadly terror attack last month.
India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade said the ban will take effect immediately, according to a May 2 notification.
“This restriction is imposed in the interest of national security and public policy,” it said, adding that any exception to this ban will need prior government approval.
More than two dozen people, mainly tourists, were killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government accused Pakistan of involvement and vowed to punish those responsible. Pakistan has denied any links to the assault and warned of retaliation if India takes military action.
Since the attack, India’s punitive measures to cut ties with Pakistan included suspending the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, cancelling visas of Pakistanis living in India, forcing Pakistani diplomats out of the country and restricting its airspace.
Pakistan too has announced its retaliatory measures against India, including halting all trade, closing its airspace and expelling Indian diplomats. It has warned that any attempt to prevent the flow of water promised under the decades-old treaty would be considered an act of war.
Trade between the two nations has dwindled over the last few years. India imported goods worth $420,000 from Pakistan between April 2024 and January 2025, a sharp plunge from $2.86 million of imports over the same period in the previous year, data from India’s commerce ministry shows.
Exports from India to Pakistan also dropped to $447.7 million between April 2024 and January 2025 from $1.1 billion the year before, according to the ministry data.
While US officials including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been urging de-escalation to avoid a broader regional conflict, India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated this week that the attack’s “perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice.”
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Published on May 3, 2025
