Indus Waters Treaty abeyance: Amit Shah to discuss future action on Friday

The meeting is expected to discuss the future course of action and how to implement the decision of keeping the treaty in abeyance

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a key meeting on Friday to discuss the future course of action on the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan, which has been kept in abeyance, sources said.

Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Paatil and senior officials of several ministries will take part in the meeting, sources said.

The meeting is expected to discuss the future course of action and how to implement the decision of keeping the treaty in abeyance, they said.

India has already informed Pakistan of its decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance with immediate effect, saying Pakistan has breached its conditions.

India’s Water Resources Secretary Debashree Mukherjee said in a letter addressed to her Pakistani counterpart, Syed Ali Murtaza, that sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting Jammu and Kashmir impedes India’s rights under the Indus Waters Treaty.

“The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the letter read.

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.

“The resulting security uncertainties have directly impeded India’s full utilisation of its rights under the treaty,” the letter read.

To give effect to the decision, the government has also formally issued a notification to suspend the Indus Water Treaty.

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Pakistan calls Indus water diversion ‘act of war’; shuts Wagah border, airspace

On Wednesday, India announced a barrage of measures against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, expulsion of Pakistani military attaches and the immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post.

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”.