Islamabad/New Delhi: Escalating tensions between the two neighbours, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned India against withholding water under the Indus Waters Treaty, declaring that New Delhi “cannot snatch even one drop” from Pakistan.
Speaking at an event in Islamabad marking International Youth Day, Sharif lashed out over India’s decision to suspend water flow since May — a move that came after the deadly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir, which killed 26 tourists.
“I want to tell the enemy today — if you threaten to hold our water, keep this in mind: you cannot take even a single drop from Pakistan,” Sharif said, according to The Express Tribune. “If you attempt such a move, Pakistan will teach you a lesson you will never forget.”
The remarks come just days after Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir made a provocative statement during a visit to the US, warning of a possible nuclear confrontation with India over water disputes. Munir asserted that Islamabad would “defend its water rights at all costs” and, if faced with an existential threat, would not hesitate to “plunge the region into nuclear conflict.”
“We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” Munir reportedly said — a comment that has drawn sharp international attention amid already fraught India-Pakistan relations.
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, governs the sharing of rivers between the two countries. Pakistan has been pressing India to resume treaty obligations, while New Delhi maintains that its actions are within the framework of the agreement, citing security concerns after the recent terror attack.
With fiery rhetoric from both the civilian and military leadership in Islamabad, the dispute over water has taken on dangerous new overtones — threatening to turn a long-standing river-sharing disagreement into a potential flashpoint with global consequences.
