South Asia is once on the edge amid spiraling Pakistan–India tensions following a deadly attack in Pahalgam part of the troubled Kashmir region, which New Delhi links to Pakistan while Islamabad firmly rejects the allegation.
India Wednesday suspended a key treaty that governs water distribution between the two countries after its outflow from Kashmir, the mountainous Himalayan region that has been the bone of contention between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Gunmen massacred 26 people visiting Pahalgam on April 22, and as per media reports 25 of the victims belong to India’s Hindu majority community.
In reaction, Pakistan Thursday closed its airspace to Indian flights, and said it would treat the blocking of its share of water as an act of war and defend its interests forcefully. The two countries have also expelled diplomats and canceled visas of each other’s citizens visiting the countries.
As tensions escalate over the attack in the disputed Kashmir region escalate, the world is watching the events unfold wearily.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday appealed to Pakistan and India to “exercise maximum restraint.
According to Guterres’ spokesman, the UN Chief wants the two countries to ensure that the situation and the developments, which have taken place following the armed attack in Indian Occupied Kashmir on Tuesday, does not deteriorate any further.
“The Secretary-General is obviously following the situation very closely and with very great concern,” Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told journalists.
On Wednesday, the Secretary-General had condemned that attack and expressed condolences with the victims.
The spokesman said that the UN chief hasn’t had any direct contact with the leadership of India and Pakistan.
Dujarric said that any issues between Pakistan and India, “we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement.”
When asked specifically to comment on the suspension by India of the Indus Waters Treaty, Dujarric said, “I think this would go under the rubric of us appealing for maximum restraint and not taking any actions that would deteriorate the situation further or increase tensions in a tense area.”
In Pakistan, Pakistan’s Energy Minister Awais Leghari called the Indian move to suspend Indus Water Treaty as illegal move.
“India’s reckless suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move. Every drop is ours by right, and we will defend it with full force – legally, politically, and globally,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, a U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations noted in an update on the South Asian situation that a destabilized Pakistan could pose dangerous consequences in the form of rising militancy in the region.
The New York Times noted in a report that blocking Pakistan’s share of water would be a devastating blow to the country.
Pakistan’s agricultural output, energy and textile industry are among the major sectors that could be directly affected by any denial of water to the country.
[…] World concern grows over spiraling Pakistan-India tensions after Kashmir killings […]