بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 is a water distribution treaty between India and Pakistan brokered by the World Bank. It was a colonialist division of life-giving water resources, designed to keep the two nation-states that emerged after colonialism within the Western colonial system and under political subservience.
The Stolen Lifeline: How Pakistan’s Leaders Surrendered Water to India
On September 19, 1960, in Karachi, the regime of Ayub Khan, in submission to Washington and the World Bank, signed the Indus Waters Treaty. The treaty granted Pakistan “control” over the western rivers: the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab while it granted India unrestricted usage rights to the eastern rivers: Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. However, most importantly, India was granted the right to build “run-of-the-river” dams on the western rivers.
This classification was a disaster from the moment the ink dried on the agreement. India soon completely choked the eastern rivers. The dams—Bhakra on the Sutlej River, Pong on the Beas River, and Thein or Ranjit Sagar on the Ravi River—reduced the flow of these rivers to almost nothing. By choking these eastern rivers, Pakistan lost a colossal quantity of water. It was an unfair deal and a surrender under the glitter of American aid. The agent rulers did not surrender due to weakness, but rather in collaboration with the very powers that view the Islamic Ummah as mere pawns to be moved as they please.
The Indus River Basin, which relies on the three western rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty, is Pakistan’s beating heart. It irrigates more than 80% of the country’s agricultural land, supports agriculture, and generates a significant portion of its hydroelectric power. Approximately, two-thirds of Pakistan’s population of 240 million people depend on it directly or indirectly. The situation is further exacerbated by a catastrophic reduction in storage capacity; it is barely sufficient for about 30 days of average flow, compared to global recommendations exceeding 120 days. Furthermore, the Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma reservoirs have lost between 22% and 37% of their capacity due to silt accumulation with further decline expected.
Per capita water share has declined from over 5,000 cubic meters at the time of the partition of India to approximately 1,000–1,200 cubic meters today, approaching the threshold of absolute scarcity.
Decades of Illusion and Negligence
For decades, a dark chapter prevailed in which treacherous leaders lied by claiming that the Indus Waters Treaty could not be violated. Consequently, the treaty remained in force even after many conflicts, including the wars from 1965 to 1971. From Kargil to surgical strikes, the rivers kept flowing. However, this fragile facade shattered after the Pulwama incident in 2019, when forty Indian soldiers were killed and the Hindu nationalist regime declared a water war. Data exchange ceased, and demands to amend the treaty were issued.
The final water suspension came in 2025, but the betrayal had already been sealed in 2019, when the leadership of Imran Khan and Bajwa in Pakistan chose to do nothing when India unilaterally abrogated Article 370. India was discarding any international obligations it did not want into the trash bin, while the leadership of Pakistan was busy presenting futile complaints to the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. India completed its occupation of Kashmir and accelerated the construction of its empire of dams; while the rulers of Pakistan were submitting complaints, India was pouring concrete.
Dams of Hegemony: India’s Violations and Turning Water into a Weapon
Following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, India tightened its grip on Kashmir. It then placed the Indus Waters Treaty into a state of “suspension” following the Bahalgam incident in April 2025. India escalated forcefully, moving beyond the constraints of run-of-the-river projects. Driven by the ideological fervor of Hindutva, New Delhi unleashed a torrent of massive storage projects on the Chenab River, which collectively constitute a de facto dam of unprecedented scale. Official propaganda describes these projects as “run-of-the-river” hydropower stations, but engineering data reveals a lethal truth: they are designed with massive operational storage capacities that grant India absolute control over the timing of the Chenab River's flow, particularly during the crucial spring crop planting season when Pakistan needs every single drop.
India’s declaration that the treaty was effectively placed in a state of “suspension” was formally articulated in official discourse following what Indian military circles termed “Operation Sindur.” Narendra Modi’s statement that “blood and water cannot flow together” was not merely a slogan; it was a political directive. The Indian Minister of Water Resources publicly announced the intention to stop the flow of India’s share of water to Pakistan and to divert all the waters of the eastern rivers that still had some residual flow. Simultaneously, India accelerated all major storage projects on the western rivers, bypassing the dialogue of the Permanent Indus Commission and testing Pakistan's subdued response before the eyes of the world.
India is rapidly expanding its storage capacity and control over the Indus waters. The hydropower capacity controlled by the government and Indian companies in occupied Kashmir is rising from 3,540 megawatts to over 5,000 megawatts by the end of 2026, with ambitions to reach 12,000 megawatts. Four major projects on the Chenab River are being accelerated, including: the 1,000 MW Pakal Dul, the 624 MW Kiru, the 540 MW Kwar, and the 850 MW Ratle, alongside other projects like the Bursar, and Kirthai I & II 1 and 2. Improvements are also being made to the Baglihar and Salal projects, and new projects like the 1,856 MW Sawalkot and the Dulhasti Stage II are being implemented, along with silt flushing operations and other design modifications to maximize control. There are plans for large storage dams, exceeding run-of-the-river projects, on the tributaries of the Chenab and Jhelum, backed by an estimated investment push of around $60 billion to increase storage from 15 days to over 55 days. This will allow India to withhold flows for about two months, which will destroy Pakistan’s crops during the spring Rabi’ and autumn Kharif seasons.
More dangerously, India is proceeding with the project for the tunnel linking the Chenab and the Beas in the Lahaul–Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh. The project involves an underground tunnel of 8.7 kilometers long and a barrier to divert surplus water from the Chandra River—one of the upper tributaries that form the Chenab River at Tandi—westward to the basin of the Beas River, an eastern river allocated entirely to India. The cost of this infrastructure is estimated at 23,520 million Indian rupees. This infrastructure effectively transfers water outside the system of the western rivers, bypassing the treaty clause concerning the maintenance of water flows to Pakistan. India has exploited this loophole in the Indus Waters Treaty and applied it fully in the Kishanganga project, where it diverted a river while building substantial storage capacity that reduced flows to Pakistan's Neelum–Jhelum hydropower plant. This project was also used to test Pakistan's will to act, but its response remained confined to papers and petitions only. A tunnel for diverting sediments, costing 2,680 million Indian rupees at the Salal Dam, further enhances this control. This diversion mimics older precedents like the Kishanganga project, and Pakistan remained silent.
These are not benign hydropower projects, but rather “strategic weapons” for water warfare: releasing floods for destruction, withholding water during dry seasons to cause famine, and using water as a bargaining chip in future negotiations. The water sources in Kashmir, which have been under direct colonial administration since 2019, grant India a position of control from the highlands—both literally and figuratively—to subjugate Pakistan, which lies downstream. India is also rapidly expanding its storage capacity. Although current infrastructure limits its ability to withhold water completely, the trajectory is clear: the cumulative projects will enable greater regulation of flows, releasing floods during the rainy season or withholding water during droughts. This is preparation for “water warfare”—the use of water as a tool for future bargaining, coercion, and subjugation. Unannounced water releases have already caused floods in Pakistan, while restricted flows threaten drought.
India has no intention whatsoever of cooperating in implementing the Indus Waters Treaty; instead, it is implementing a carefully planned, silent violation. It exploits every loophole in the treaty itself, as well as the hollow rhetoric of the leadership of Pakistan, and has built over 30 projects on the western rivers, turning them into tools of subjugation. In 2025, following the Pahalgam incident, India deliberately emptied its reservoirs, leading to the flooding of villages in Azad Kashmir. The Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime explicitly threatens to stop the water flow whenever it wishes. These dams are not engineering projects; they are the new swords of Hindutva.
Inaction of the Leadership of Pakistan
The response of the so-called leaders in Islamabad is nothing but empty rhetoric, press releases, and appeals to the very Western institutions that India openly ignores. What is the value of appeals directed at the international community, which is led by the United States, the principal ally of the Hindu state? The spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan speaks of “the weaponisation of water,” violations of the Indus Waters Treaty, and “serious repercussions,” and warns of a certain response, but he offers nothing concrete.
The leadership of Pakistan has perfected the art of filing complaints like court clerks, while the lifeblood artery is being slaughtered. It lost the Baglihar arbitration case and rejected legal notices. All responses are confined to futile diplomatic memos submitted to Washington and the World Bank. They surrendered occupied Kashmir through inaction and compromise, and now they are preparing to surrender the very waters upon which Pakistan's life depends. The Kishanganga River diversion project is only the beginning. India plans to divert 70–80% of the flows, turning Pakistan into a desert. Therefore, Kashmir is not merely a disputed territory; it is the lifeblood artery of the Ummah. And every dam built on occupied land is a theft of the blood of the Muslims.
The current military leadership in Pakistan will do nothing beyond rhetoric, and India knows this, for the interests of this leadership are tied to the United States and the “hard state” that serves Washington. The betrayal will be complete when the taps run dry in Lahore, and the fields of Multan turn into dust-covered, cracked earth. Then, the Ummah will finally understand that independence cannot be leased out to agents. But by then, it will be too late. The opportunity must be seized today by those who carry the ‘Aqeedah (creed) and the sword. The Indus Waters Treaty was a colonialist noose tightened by treacherous hands; the dams are the knot that tightens, petitions have failed, and the agents must be removed.
O Muslims of Pakistan and its Armed Forces!
Your rulers have surrendered the rivers that feed your children. Dams are rising, and the noose is tightening. So, do not pin your hopes on their futile petitions or the colonial arbitrators. They are buying time for the enemy to dominate you. They keep you preoccupied while the enemy severs our lifelines. Under pressure from the US Vice President, they ordered a ceasefire in May 2025, just when the Pakistani Air Force had achieved air superiority and the liberation of occupied Kashmir had become inevitable.
Doesn’t the Army Act of 1952 include Article 24, which addresses military crimes, stipulating that “directly or indirectly assists or relieves the enemy” —crimes punishable by death?
Return to Allah (swt) and His Deen. Remove these agents, and establish the shield of the Muslims—the Khilafah (Caliphate)—which will unite us, build our strength, protect our waters, liberate Kashmir, and restore the Ummah's honor. Indeed, the rivers are our lifeblood, but our Iman (faith) is our true strength. Let the call for the Khilafah flow more powerfully than the Indus River, uprooting treachery and irrigating the fields of victory. The time for action is now. And victory comes from Allah alone. Then, Islam and the Muslims will be honored, and disbelief and the disbelievers will be disgraced. Allah (swt) says,
[وَيَوْمَئِذٍ يَفْرَحُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ * بِنَصْرِ اللَّهِ يَنْصُرُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ]
“And that day the believers will rejoice * In the victory of Allah. He gives victory to whom He wills, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Merciful” [TMQ Surah Ar-Rum: 4-5].