New Delhi:
With its back against the wall and no other options available, Pakistan’s top committee on security met today and after an hours-long discussion decided to mirror India’s actions in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Islamabad too has decided to suspend the permits issued to Indians under the SAARC visa exemption scheme, while also suspending all other visas, as was done by India a day before. It also decided to reduce Indian diplomatic staff at the High Commission to 30 persons in a tit-for-tat decision.
But finding itself on the losing end on India’s decision to suspend tthe Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan said, “Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power.”
Pakistan faces a grave situation should the Indus and two other rivers – Jhelum and Chenab – which flow into the country be diverted or stopped, with tens of millions of people getting affected. Pakistan already faces an acute water shortage and such a punishing move will likely cripple the state of Pakistan.
But Pakistan has stirred up a hornet’s nest with its announcement that “Pakistan shall exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India including but not limited to Simla Agreement in abeyance, till India desists from its manifested behaviour of fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan; trans-national killings; and non-adherence to international law and UN Resolutions on Kashmir.”
