Narendra Modi says “Water and blood also cannot flow together” after attack halts Indus treaty

After a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam last April, India suspended the 1960 Indus Water Treaty and halted trade with Pakistan, a decision that Prime Minister Narendra Modi justified by stating that water and blood cannot coexist. At a recent United Nations Security Council debate on natural resource governance, India’s envoy P. Harish reiterated that the treaty remains on hold as long as Islamabad employs cross-border terrorism as state policy. He was responding to Pakistan’s representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, who accused India of illegally setting aside the water-sharing agreement and linked the issue to Kashmir. Harish maintained that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and called on Pakistan to address its own internal unrest.