India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty in the wake of the recent Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 lives, has drawn sharp reaction from Islamabad, with a senior Pakistani minister calling the move an act of “water warfare”.

“India’s reckless suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move,” Pakistan’s power minister Awais Lekhari said in a post on X late on Wednesday night.

Also Read | ‘Terrorism gasping its last breath…’: CM Yogi Adityanath’s message to Pahalgam attackers

The decades-old treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, has long been considered one of the few stable agreements between India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed neighbours who share a rocky history.

India suspends the Indus Waters Treaty

Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri on Wednesday said a cabinet committee on security was briefed on the cross-border linkages of the recently held Pahalgam attack, and New Delhi would suspend a six-decade-old river-sharing treaty and close the only land crossing between the neighbours.

Also Read | In Udhampur, 1 para commando killed, 2 others injured, days after Pahalgam attack; gunfight underway

India will also pull out its defence attaches in Pakistan and reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.

India has summoned the top diplomat at the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi to give notice that all defence advisers in the Pakistani mission were persona non grata and given a week to leave, one of the measures Misri announced.

All-party meeting on Pahalgam terror attack

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting with opposition parties to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

The Centre will brief leaders of various political parties on the Pahalgam terror attack and hear their views at the meeting to be held on Thursday evening.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh and home minister Amit Shah are expected to brief the leaders, official sources said. Singh will chair the meeting.

Meanwhile, Modi vowed on Thursday to punish all those responsible for the worst attack on civilians.

Also Read | How India’s neighbours reacted to Pahalgam terrorist attack as 26 brutally shot dead

India has accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after the killing of 26 men in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said in his first speech since the attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.

Modi, who was speaking in Bihar to launch development projects, first led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed, who were all Indian, except one Nepali.