Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has given a direct threat to India regarding the water of Indus River. He said that if India stopped the water, Pakistan would not hesitate to take military action. This statement has come after India suspended the Indus Water Treaty of 1960.
Islamabad: Pakistan has threatened India with war over the water of Indus River. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said that if the country’s water security is threatened then they will not hesitate to take military action. This inflammatory statement of Asif came in an interview given to ‘ARY News’. This entire controversy deepened when India suspended the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960.
Khawaja Asif clearly said that water security is an important issue related to the sovereignty of the country and any kind of threat to it will not be tolerated. He openly declared that if there was any serious threat to Pakistan’s rights over the waters of the Indus River, his country would not think twice about waging a war against India. He further said that if we feel that India is taking any swift action to reduce or stop the water flowing towards Pakistan, then the Army will respond to it.
This statement of the Pakistani Defense Minister has come after a video surfaced recently. In this video, India’s Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil was seen saying that India may be able to completely stop Indus River water going to Pakistan by June 2028. Let us tell you that after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir in April 2025, India had indefinitely canceled the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. 26 people were killed in this attack. India had made it clear that Pakistan-backed terrorists were behind this attack and unless Islamabad takes some concrete and permanent action against cross-border terrorism, this treaty brokered by the World Bank will not be reinstated.
Under this treaty, Pakistan gets about 80 percent of the water of the Indus Basin, which is very important for its agriculture and economy. Pakistan has sought intervention from the United Nations Security Council against this unilateral decision of India. Pakistan also alleges that India is working on a river-linking project to divert the water of Chenab river, which is a violation of international laws. At a time when Pakistan is already grappling with major crises of climate change and water scarcity, the Indus water dispute could lead to a major conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries.