India suspends exchange of all categories of inbound mail, parcels from Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday decided to suspend exchange of all categories of all inbound mails and parcels from Pakistan through air and surface routes, a statement by Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, Jyotiradita Scindia said.

The statement by the Ministry of Communications, Department of Posts was also tweeted by India Post.
https://x.com/JM_Scindia/status/1918612063683055936

The suspension follows another ban by the Centre earlier in the day on Pakistani imports. India has imposed an immediate ban on the direct or indirect import and transit of all goods originating in or exported from Pakistan, regardless of their import status, effectively halting bilateral trade flows.

The Indian import from Pakistan will come down to zero from the current level of about half a million US dollars between both neighbouring countries, following a fresh ban announced by the Centre, Ajay Srivastava, Founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), said in a note.

The move comes amid the growing tension between India and Pakistan following the dastardly attack in Pahalgam in which 26 tourists lost their lives.

“India’s already minuscule imports from Pakistan–barely USD 0.5 million a year–will now drop to zero. No one in India will miss anything except perhaps Himalayan pink salt (Sendha Namak), extracted from salt deposits of Pakistan,” said Ajay Srivastava, Founder of GTRI.

Srivastava said that the move to ban the import from Pakistan is mostly symbolic, as India had already imposed 200 per cent tariffs after the 2019 Pulwama attack. The heavy tariffs post the Pulwama attack reduced imports to around USD 0.42 million between April 2024 and January 2025.

Following the terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, the Central government announced several diplomatic measures, such as closing the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari, suspending the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) for Pakistani nationals, giving them 40 hours to return to their country, and reducing the number of officers in the High Commissions on both sides.

India has also halted the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960 in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. (ANI)