Panic grips Pakistan as India vows to cut off water supply

Spraying pesticides on his parched vegetables one street away from the Indus River, Pakistani farmer Homla Thakhur is worried about his future. The sun is at its peak, the river is running very low, and India has vowed to cut supplies upstream after a deadly militant attack in Kashmir.

- Reuters Latifabad (Pakistan)/New Delhi, 27 April

"If they stop water, all of this will turn into the Thar desert, the whole country," said Thakhur, 40, before heading back to the river to refill the tank for the spray gun. "We'll die of hunger."

His nearly 5-acre (2-hectare) farm is located in the Latifabad area of the southeastern province of Sindh, from where the Indus flows into the Arabian Sea after originating in Tibet and snaking through India.

Thakhur's fears were echoed by more than 15 Pakistani farmers and several other experts, especially as rain has been scanty in recent years.

For the first time, India on Wednesday suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 that ensures water for 80 per cent of Pakistani farms, saying it would last until "Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism".