India had put the IWT in abeyance last year following a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raised the sensitive issue of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) during an event on the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, warning India that Pakistan would give a “direct response” if its water supplies were threatened.
Sharif said Pakistan wanted peace and not war, but warned that its desire for peace should not be seen as weakness.
The government has described the suspension of the treaty as part of the measures taken in response to the Pahalgam attack. “India’s position on the Indus Water Treaty is consistent . The IWT stands in abeyance in response to Pakistan’s continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.
He warned that Pakistan would respond if India threatened its water supplies, adding that any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty would draw a strong response, referring to the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025. Following the attack, the Cabinet Committee on Security met on April 23, 2025, after which India announced that it was keeping the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.
“Every drop of water is our red line,” Sharif said, as quoted in a report by the Associated Press . The Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif described India as an “enemy of peace” over New Delhi’s decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. The PMO said the prime minister had made it clear that there would be “no compromise” on the water issue and warned that Pakistan would give a “direct response” if India did not “come to the right path”. New Delhi said the conditions under which the treaty had been negotiated had fundamentally changed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also defended the decision, saying that “water and blood cannot flow together”. Pakistan must credibly and irrevocably abjure its support for cross-border terrorism,” Jaiswal had said. His clarification came after a Pakistan minister had issued a stark warning to India over the treaty and said Islamabad would “cut off those hands” that he claimed sought to control the Indus water.
