IN this article, I argue that India’s decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance fails on two independent grounds. First, ‘abeyance’ is a status unknown to the treaty and to the law of treaties: the IWT contains no suspension or exit clause, and Article XII(4) continues it in force until terminated by a duly ratified treaty betw­een the Pakistani and Indian governments. Sec­o­­nd, even according to India’s own logic the step was premature, for every fact it relies upon is disputed and none has been examined by any com­petent multilateral or bilateral forum or court.

The tragic Pahalgam incident occurred on April 22, 2025. FIR No. 25/2025 was registered within 10 minutes of the incident. No Pakistani national was named in it. Without proper investigation, without the apprehension of any suspect, without a confessional statement, and without seeking cross-border cooperation through any mutual legal assistance, India assumed that it was Pakistan that caused the terrorist incident.

Let us now turn to a letter by India’s water and power ministry addressed to Pakistan and dated April 24, 2025, just two days after the Pahalgam attack. In the said letter, India takes a strong position that “sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir” is a fact tantamount to not honouring the good faith that is ‘fundamental’ to a treaty.

Pakistan categorically denies this ‘fact’ of sustained cross-border terrorism in occupied Jam­mu and Kashmir, including Pahalgam. Its Forei­­gn Office,........

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