Modi Firm – No Indus Water For Pakistan

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI — “Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack … Pakistan’s army will pay it, Pakistan’s economy will pay it,”  Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared at a public event in Rajasthan near the Pakistan border, underscoring a hardening stance in the wake of last month’s Phalgam attack.

 On May 22, he reiterated that Pakistan will no longer receive water from rivers over which India holds control, pushing back on the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty. Brokered by the World Bank in 1960, the treaty has governed water sharing between the neighbors for over six decades even through other conflicts.

The Indus Waters Treaty channels water from three rivers originating in India to Pakistan and is crucial to nearly 80% of Pakistan’s agricultural sector.

Despite rising tensions, a ceasefire between the two countries has largely held. Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, speaking to Dutch outlet NOS, reaffirmed India’s right to act decisively against cross-border terrorism:
“The (military) operation continues because there is a clear message…that if there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22, there will be a response, we will hit the terrorists,” Jaishankar said.
“If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are,” he added.