Pakistan threatens nuclear war after India's water threat
Wayne Seretis
Updated 13.13 | Published 11.47
India threatens water war.
Pakistan with nuclear weapons.
- We have 130 nuclear bombs aimed at you, says Pakistan's Railway Minister Hanif Abbasi.
Tensions are rising rapidly between nuclear powers India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam where 26 Indian tourists were murdered.
In recent days, gunfights have broken out along the border between the countries.
Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in London on Saturday, with Indian and Pakistani demonstrators shouting slogans at each other.
India accuses Pakistani Islamists of the mass murder and is literally talking about the last straw.
On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri announced that India is suspending the Indus Water Treaty “with immediate effect,” according to The Hindu.
– Blood and water cannot mix, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously said about the water treaty.
The agreement, which was signed in 1960, regulates how Pakistan can share the water from the Indus River and its tributaries, which come from Chinese Tibet via India to Pakistan.
Vital for farmers
According to the BBC, 80 percent of Pakistan’s agriculture, and a third of its hydropower, depend on the water from the Indus.
India also expelled all Pakistani citizens.
Pakistan responded by closing Pakistani airspace to India and expelling Indian citizens.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also said in a statement that a cut-off of water flow would be considered "an act of war."
On Sunday, the Pakistani government went even further.
- If they stop our water supply, then they should prepare for war. The missiles we have, they are not just for show. I say it again, these missiles, they are all aimed at you, says Railway Minister Hannif Abbasi according to News18.
Water as a weapon
Wars with water as a weapon have been unusual until now.
Peace and conflict researcher Stefan Döring at Uppsala University believes that negotiations about water have rather led to more peace and understanding.
- Threatening with water in a country that is very dependent on water for agriculture is very sensitive. This water agreement, which has already survived two wars, is an area where the two countries are actually talking to each other, he says.
Another question is whether India even has the ability to stop millions of cubic meters of water from flowing to Pakistan.
– As I understand it, they don't have enough dams and reservoirs to retain the water, they don't have the technical capabilities at the moment. There are also parts of the agreement that prohibit India from building such things, and it's not something that can be done tomorrow, says Döring.
One of the demonstrations after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam where 26 Indian tourists were murdered.
Die of starvation
According to Hassan F Khan, assistant professor at Tuft University outside Boston, we are in the most sensitive period right now, because Pakistan's dry period lasts all spring until the summer monsoon rains.
“A more pressing question is what happens during the dry season, when flows through the catchment are lower, and more is needed,” he writes in Dawn.
In Pakistan, panic is spreading after India’s threat.
“If they stop the water, all this will turn into
, the whole country,” Homla Thakhur, 40, told Reuters.
He is a farmer in Latifabad in southeastern Pakistan.
“We will all die of hunger,” he says.
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