India’s suspension of river treaty water warfare, says Pakistan

A PAKISTAN government minister has said India’s suspension of a river treaty following a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir was an act of “water warfare’, underlining a sharp plunge in relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.

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Gunmenkilled 26 men at a tourist site in the Pahalgam area of Indian Kashmir this week in the worst attack on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said a cabinet committee on security was briefed on the cross-border linkages of the attack and New Delhi would suspend a six-decade old river-sharing treaty as well as close the only land crossing between the neighbours.

"India’s reckless suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move,’ Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Lekhari said.

Misri, the top diplomat in India’s foreign ministry, did not offer any proof of the involvement or provide any more details.

New Delhi will also pull out its defence attaches in Pakistan and reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.