India claims that the Indus water pact with Pakistan will never be restored

Home Minister Amit Shah stated in an interview with the Times of India on Saturday that India will never reestablish the Indus Waters Treaty with Islamabad and that the water that flows to Pakistan would be redirected for domestic use.

India put its adherence to the 1960 treaty, which regulates the use of the Indus river system, into “abeyance” following the murder of 26 people in Indian Kashmir in what Delhi called a horrific atrocity. Eighty percent of Pakistan’s farmers were promised water supply through three rivers that started in India as a result of the deal.

A truce agreed upon by the two nuclear-armed neighbors last month after their deadliest fighting in decades has left the pact dormant, despite Pakistan’s denial of involvement in the incident.

Shah said, “No, it will never be restored,” to the daily.

The plan is to build a canal to transport water from Pakistan to Rajasthan. Shah added, “Pakistan, a state in northwest India, will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably.”

The most influential cabinet member in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, Shah, has made remarks that have lowered Islamabad’s expectations for treaty talks in the near future.

According to a Reuters story last month, India intends to take punitive measures by drastically increasing the amount of water it takes from a significant river that supplies Pakistani fields downstream.

When Reuters asked Pakistan’s foreign ministry for comment, they did not immediately reply.

However, it has previously stated that “an act of war” will be committed if river water flowing to Pakistan is blocked, and that the treaty contains no provisions for one side to unilaterally withdraw.

India’s move to put the pact on hold is also being challenged in court by Islamabad under international law.