Jammu and Kashmir chief calls for ending Indus Waters Treaty after Pakistan PM's warning

During a speech in Islamabad, Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that Pakistan would act to safeguard every drop of water covered by the Indus Waters Treaty, calling any deviation a red line. The remarks prompted a sharp reply from Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar, who said the treaty has been kept in abeyance and should remain so. Abdullah described the agreement as having "sucked the blood" out of the region, noting that it bars J&K from extracting drinking water from the Chenab and using the Jhelum for irrigation or constructing a barrage at Tulbul.

He pointed out that three rivers originally belonging to Punjab were retained by India, while the three western rivers were handed to Pakistan, leaving J&K disadvantaged. The chief minister recalled the National Conference's long-standing opposition to the treaty and urged its cancellation to allow proper water use. The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, allocated the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej to India and the western Indus, Chenab and Jhelum to Pakistan. India placed the treaty in abeyance last year after a terror attack in Pahalgam, and the issue remains a point of contention between the two neighbours.