The water weapon! |
FOR over six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) served as a rare cornerstone of stability in South Asia.
Brokered by the World Bank, it successfully partitioned the Indus Basin, allocating the Eastern Rivers (Sutlej, Beas, Ravi) to India and the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan. Despite surviving three major wars and numerous skirmishes, this resilient framework entered a state of unprecedented jeopardy in April 2025. Following a tragic terror attack in Pahalgam, India unilaterally declared the treaty held “in abeyance,” a move that shifted the regional water discourse from technical cooperation to strategic coercion.
This shift has caught the attention of international policy forecasters. In its ‘Top Risks 2026’ Report, the Eurasia Group, a leading US-based policy institute, identified the weaponization of the Indus as a premier global political risk. The report........