Pakistan won’t get water over which India has rights

Pakistan will not get water from rivers over which India has rights, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday, a month after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir led New Delhi to suspend a key river water-sharing treaty between the neighbours.

The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, negotiated by the World Bank in 1960, was among a slew of measures announced by India against Pakistan last month after the April 22 attack that killed 26 men.

New Delhi had said the attack was backed by Pakistan – an accusation Islamabad denied – and the nuclear-armed neighbours were involved in their worst military fighting in nearly three decades before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10.

"Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack ... Pakistan's army will pay it, Pakistan's economy will pay it," Modi said at a public event in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

The Indus treaty provides water for 80 percent of Pakistan's farms from three rivers that flow from India but Pakistan's finance minister said this month that its suspension was not going to have "any immediate impact".

The ceasefire between the countries has largely held, with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar saying that there is no exchange of fire currently and "there has been some repositioning of forces accordingly".