New Delhi: Former Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari warned India of war over the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Bilawal, the chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said that if India denies Pakistan its fair water share under the 1960 treaty, Islamabad “will have to wage war again” against New Delhi.
“If India refuses to abide by the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan will not shy away from waging war again. India has two options: share water fairly, or we will deliver water to us from all six rivers,” Bilawal said in Parliament, referring to the six rivers of the Indus basin. Bilawal’s statement comes at a time there is a simmering tension between India and Pakistan over the Indus Waters Treaty. India has indicated in recent years that it may reconsider the water pact.
India on April 23 suspended the 1960 agreement, a day after the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week asserted that India will never restore the water pact. “We will take the water that was flowing to Pakistan to Rajasthan by constructing a canal. Pakistan will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably,” he said in an interview to Times of India. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry described Shah’s stance on the water pact as a “brazen disregard” for international agreements.
Bilawal also advocated dialogue and said that if the two countries refuse to hold talk and there is no coordination on terrorism, “violence will intensify”.
Besides putting the IWT in abeyance and suspending all trade with Pakistan, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The strikes was followed by four days of intense clashes between India and Pakistan that ended with an understanding on cessation of the military actions on May 10.
