Last month, India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack and, this month, has experienced its most severe military confrontation with India in decades.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Thursday that Pakistan will not receive water from rivers to which India holds rights. This announcement comes a month after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir prompted New Delhi to suspend a crucial river water-sharing agreement with Pakistan.
The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, was part of a series of measures India implemented against Pakistan following the April 22 attack that resulted in the deaths of 26 individuals, primarily Hindu tourists. New Delhi claimed that the attack had the backing of Pakistan, a charge that Islamabad has denied. The two nuclear-armed nations experienced their most intense military conflict in nearly thirty years before reaching a ceasefire on May 10.
"Pakistan will face significant consequences for each terrorist attack... The burden will fall on Pakistan's military and its economy," Modi stated during a public event in Rajasthan, a northwestern state that shares a border with Pakistan.
The Indus treaty supplies water to 80 percent of Pakistan's agricultural land from three rivers originating in India. However, Pakistan's finance minister mentioned this month that suspending the treaty would not have "any immediate impact."
The ceasefire between the two nations has mostly been maintained, with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar noting that there is currently no exchange of fire and that "some repositioning of forces has taken place accordingly."
“If we witness acts like those on April 22, there will be a response; we will target the terrorists,” Jaishankar stated in an interview with the Dutch news outlet NOS. “If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will strike them there,” he continued.
There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan regarding the remarks made by Modi and Jaishankar.
Since their separation from British India in 1947, India and Pakistan have had a contentious relationship, having fought three wars, two of which were over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, claimed in full by both nations but governed in part by each.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of supporting Islamist separatists who are fighting against security forces in its region of Kashmir, a claim that Islamabad denies. Since the April attack in Kashmir, the two archrivals have implemented various measures against one another, such as halting trade, closing land borders, and suspending most visa services.
