Narendra Modi says "Blood and water cannot flow together" as India links Indus water to security

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, warned at the U.N. General Assembly that blocking, hindering or redirecting Pakistan’s share of the Indus River system would be treated as a warlike act, the article reports. His statement followed the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, after which India launched Operation Sindoor and put the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on hold, saying the pause would last until Pakistan credibly and permanently ended support for terrorism from its soil. The World Bank-brokered treaty assigns eastern rivers for India’s use and western rivers chiefly to Pakistan. Those western rivers are vital to Pakistani agriculture, electricity and rural livelihoods, giving the dispute broad economic importance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his remark as India increasingly links water arrangements to security concerns.