Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Sunday warned that Islamabad could resort to military action if it believes India's moves on the Indus river system threaten Pakistan's water security, escalating rhetoric amid an increasingly bitter dispute over the suspended Indus Waters Treaty.
Speaking to ARY News, Asif described water as a core national security issue and said Pakistan would not hesitate to respond if it perceived a serious threat to its access to Indus basin waters.
"The moment we feel that our national security — and water is part of our national security — is being threatened, we will go to war against India. Definitely," he said.
He also suggested Pakistan, which is facing a crippling water crisis, could act if there were indications that India was moving rapidly to restrict or alter water flows under the river-sharing arrangement.
The remarks came after a video clip surfaced of India's Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil indicating that the flow of Indus waters to Pakistan could be completely stopped by June 2028.
The latest warning adds to tensions that have remained high since India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty following the April 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed.
New Delhi blamed Pakistan-backed terrorists for the attack and subsequently put the World Bank-brokered treaty in abeyance, saying it would remain suspended until Islamabad takes credible and irreversible action against cross-border terrorism.
The treaty governs the sharing of waters from the Indus river system and allocates roughly 80 per cent of the basin's waters to Pakistan, making it critical for the country's agriculture, irrigation network and broader economy.
Pakistan has repeatedly objected to India's decision, arguing that any disruption to water flows would have serious consequences for millions of people dependent on the river system.
Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar last week sought UN Security Council intervention over what he called India's violations of the Indus Waters Treaty. Pakistan earlier this month alleged that India intends to construct a river-linking project to reroute water from the Chenab, calling it a serious breach of the Indus Waters Treaty and other international obligations.
As Pakistan faces growing water shortages and climate-related pressures, the Indus dispute has emerged as another major flashpoint in relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
