Pakistan vows to punish India for ending autonomy

NEW DELHI — Pakistan announced plans on Wednesday to punish India for unilaterally wiping out the autonomy of Kashmir by ending bilateral trade, downgrading diplomatic ties and expelling India’s high commissioner to the country.

A statement from a national security committee headed by the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, said the changes would be put in place because of “illegal actions” by the Indian government regarding Kashmir.

Khan denounced India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing his government of promoting “an ideology that puts Hindus above all other religions and seeks to establish a state that represses all other religious groups.”

The statement on Wednesday from the committee headed by Khan said that India’s stripping of Kashmiri autonomy would also be raised by Pakistan with the U.N. Security Council, which recognizes the region as disputed.

In addition to ending bilateral trade, which has been valued at several billion dollars annually, Pakistani officials said the government might close the country’s airspace to Indian aircraft and recall its top diplomat in India. The statement said all bilateral agreements would also be reviewed.

In a speech in the Pakistani Parliament before the measures were announced, Fawad Chaudhry, the science and technology minister, called India a “fascist regime” and said another war over Kashmir, where decades of fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, was not off the table.

“Pakistan should not let Kashmir become another Palestine,” Chaudhry said. “We have to choose between dishonor and war.”

The call for action comes after Amit Shah, the Indian home minister, announced on Monday that the Indian government was revoking Kashmir’s special status, which served as a foundation for most of the contested region joining India as an autonomous area more than 70 years ago.

The Indian Parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill on Tuesday that split the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federal territories. The move puts Kashmir under tighter control of the central government.

India and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear arms, have fought several bitter wars over Kashmir, a mountainous, predominantly Muslim territory claimed by both countries.

Many analysts said Pakistan cannot afford to go to war and has limited latitude on Kashmir. The country has a history of providing support to militant groups in the region, despite repeated calls from allies to stop such assistance.