Indus Waters Treaty Pause To Continue Till Pak Ends Terror: India

NEW YORK, NY – India has reiterated that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will be held in abeyance till “the global epicenter of terror” Pakistan mends its ways.

Pakistan “must uphold the sanctity of human life before talking of upholding the sanctity of treaties”, India’s Permanent Representative P Harish said on March 19 at an event held at the UN to mark World Water Day.

“India has always been a responsible upper riparian state”, he said. “But responsibility is a two-way street. Pakistan must unconditionally abjure terrorism as an instrument of its state policy”.

Harish was responding to Pakistan raising the IWT as if it were an aggrieved party, impinging on a high-level event commemorating World Water Day, which focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to safe water and sanitation for all.

India signed the IWT “in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship”, but “Pakistan violated this spirit by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India”, he said.

“Tens of thousands of innocent Indians became victims of Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks”, he added.

India put the IWT, signed with Pakistan in 1960, in abeyance after the Pahalgam religion-based terrorist attack last year by The Resistance Front, an outfit linked to the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

“Our patience and magnanimity did not change Pakistan’s ways. Eventually, we were compelled to announce that the Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan, the global epicenter of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for all forms of terrorism”, Harish said.

Moreover, a revision to the Treaty was needed because of “fundamental changes over the last 65 years” due to technological, demographic and ecological shifts, which Islamabad refused to discuss, he said.

“All our efforts to discuss modifications to the Treaty with Pakistan were rebuffed”, he added. (IANS)