‘Either water will flow or…’: Former Pakistan FM Bilawal Bhutto’s threat to PM Modi after India suspends Indus Waters Treaty with Islamabad

India's decision to suspend the decades-old treaty follows the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday.

Intensifying the tension around the Indus Water treaty, former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, has threatened India of die hard consequences over the decision to suspend the water. India has informed Pakistan of its decision to keep Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance with immediate effect, saying Pakistan has breached conditions of the treaty.

India’s decision to suspend the decades-old treaty follows the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday.

Pakistan has rejected India’s suspension of the treaty and said any measures to stop the flow of water “belonging to Pakistan” under the pact will be seen as an “act of war”.

Bhutto, speaking in Sukkur alongside the Indus River, said, “India has accused Pakistan of the Pahalgam incident, with Modi making false allegations to conceal his own weaknesses and deceive his people. He has unilaterally decided to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, under which India had acknowledged that the Indus belongs to Pakistan. Standing here in Sukkur by the Indus, I want to tell India that the Indus is ours and will remain ours. Either water will flow in this Indus, or their blood will.”

What is Indus Water Treaty

The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

The Indus river system comprises the main river, the Indus, and its tributaries. The Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Jhelum and Chenab are its left-bank tributaries, while the Kabul river, a right-bank tributary, does not flow through Indian territory.

The Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej are collectively referred to as the eastern rivers, while the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab are known as the western rivers. The water of this river system are crucial to both India and Pakistan.

Under the treaty, India was granted exclusive rights to the water of the eastern rivers – the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi – amounting to an average annual flow of about 33 million acre-feet (MAF).