Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Tuesday that his country was going to “cut the water” from the rivers that take their sources in its territory and irrigate Pakistan downstream, in retaliation for the murderous attack on the Indian cashmere.
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“The water belonging to India passed so far outwards, it will now be stopped to serve the interests of India and will be used for the country,” said Modi during a public speech.
India has suspended its participation in a water sharing treaty signed in 1960 with Pakistan in retaliation for the attack which killed 26 on April 22 in the tourist town of Pahalgam, in the Indian cashmere.
Even if the attack was not claimed, New Delhi questioned Islamabad, who categorically denied it.
The two countries have been on the war foot since this attack, the deadliest targeting civilians committed for more than twenty years in the Indian part of this region with a Muslim majority.
-Indian and Pakistani soldiers have exchanged over a week for more than a week of light weapons along the border that separates their countries.
Pakistan accused India on Tuesday of modifying the flow of the Chenab river, one of the three placed under the control of Islamabad according to the 1960 treaty.
“We have noticed changes on the Chenab which are not natural (…) The normal flow of the river was considerably reduced overnight,” Kazim Pirzada, Minister of Irrigation of the Pendjab told AFP.
After the Indian decision to unilaterally suspend the treaty, Pakistan warned that any attempt to disturb the flow of these rivers would be considered “an act of war”.
Located on the border of India, this province, which has almost half of 240 million Pakistani, is the agricultural heart of the country.
The Industry Treaty grants New Delhi the right to use the shared rivers for its dams or cultures, but forbids it to divert rivers or alter the volume of water downstream.
