Former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari threatened India days after New Delhi formally suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, following the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhutto, speaking in Sukkur alongside the Indus River, said, “India has accused Pakistan of the Pahalgam incident, with Modi making false allegations to conceal his own weaknesses and deceive his people. He has unilaterally decided to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, under which India had acknowledged that the Indus belongs to Pakistan. Standing here in Sukkur by the Indus, I want to tell India that the Indus is ours and will remain ours. Either water will flow in this Indus, or their blood will.”
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have sharply escalated since the attack in Pahalgam, where 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed. The Resistance Front (TRF), believed to be a proxy of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility. India responded by initiating the process to suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, citing Pakistan’s alleged support for cross-border terrorism.
The government, through its ministry of jal shakti, sent formal notice to Pakistan’s ministry of water Resources. The letter, invoking Article XII(3) of the Treaty, pointed to demographic shifts, evolving clean energy needs, and Pakistan’s alleged support for terrorism as grounds for a review. India stressed that the treaty could no longer be implemented in “good faith” under current circumstances.
Meanwhile, the fallout has triggered internal discord within Pakistan. The controversial Cholistan canals project, launched in February by the army and Punjab’s provincial government, has been suspended following pressure from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and widespread protests in Sindh. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Bilawal Bhutto and agreed that no further canals would be built without consensus through the Council of Common Interests (CCI).
At a joint press conference, Sharif confirmed, “Until a decision is reached with mutual consensus in the CCI, no further canal will be constructed.”
“India’s announcement to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty is illegal and against humanity,” Bhutto had earlier said. “We will raise Pakistan’s case not only on the streets but at the international level.”
India has also begun identifying and sending back Pakistani nationals living in India on short-term visas. Union home minister Amit Shah has instructed state governments to expedite the process, while also calling a meeting with senior officials to discuss the implications of India’s decision on the treaty.
