'We'll Cut Off Hands That...': Pakistan's Unprovoked Threat Over Indus Waters

In yet another act of unprovoked aggression against India, a Pakistani minister threatened to "cut off those hands" that sought to claim Islamabad's so-called share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). The unsolicited threat came from Pakistan's Climate Change Minister, Musadik Malik, adding to the tensions over the decades-old water-sharing pact that India decided to keep in abeyance following the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 25 tourists and a local.

Addressing a press conference, Malik accused India of "controlling" Pakistan's share of water, claiming Pakistan would "not let anyone" obstruct its share of water. 

"There is a tap being controlled by the prime minister of a neighbouring country. He says he will not let even a drop of water flow into Pakistan," Malik said, according to Dawn.

He noted that 40-50 per cent of Pakistan's population relied on agriculture for their livelihood. He said, "Someone else [is trying to] control the entirety of the country's food security, 50 per cent of employment in the country and 25 per cent of the economy."

The minister claimed that Pakistan had "already declared that anyone trying to deprive it of its water would face severe consequences".

"But there is also the question of justice. We will protect ourselves...Not that we've just announced it, but we've proved that if anyone lays a hand over our share of water, we'll cut off that hand," he said.

Malik said that elsewhere in the world, water continued to flow even in the absence of a treaty, governed only by a convention. 

"Does every upper riparian now have the right to stop the flow of water to the lower riparian?... But we even have a treaty. [...] How can the water be stopped here then? This is the case that we will present tomorrow," he added.

"The treaty exists," he asserted, adding that Tuesday's conference was primarily about justice and rights. "It will be decided what justice is internationally. […] It will be decided whether the children in lower riparian areas across the world have a right to water."

Malik's comments were reported by several Pakistani news outlets. Clips of it were also shared on social media. However, NDTV could not independently verify its authenticity. 

پاکستان پہلے ہی واضح کر چکا ہے کہ اگر کسی نے ہمارے پانی پر ہاتھ ڈالنے کی کوشش کی تو اسے بھرپور جواب دیا جائے گا

ہم دوٹوک اعلان کر چکے ہیں کہ جو ہمارے پانی پر ہاتھ ڈالے گا ہم وہ ہاتھ کاٹ دیں گے

ہم نے پہلے ہوا میں پکڑ کر ٹھوکا ہے اب نیچے سے بھی ٹھوکیں گے ۔ مصدق ملک pic.twitter.com/l4q4XfmpsN

— Kippsam Malik (@KeepsamM) June 29, 2026

Pakistan Defends Water Treaty

Addressing the same press conference, the Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also insisted that the Indus Waters Treaty remained legally binding and could not be suspended, revoked or amended unilaterally. He claimed that the people of Pakistan had a right to Indus waterways under the "legally enforceable treaty" that remained in force.

"Legally, Pakistan's stance has garnered support internationally, as the IWT cannot be unilaterally revoked, abolished or amended," he said, according to a Dawn report.

The minister claimed Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had stated multiple times that "water is our lifeline as well as our red line".

The Treaty

The comments from across the border came weeks after Union Water Resources Minister CR Patil, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, said India intends to fully utilise its share of Indus waters within the next one and a half to two years and asserted that not a single drop meant for India would flow to Pakistan.

New Delhi had placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance following a deadly cross-border terrorist strike in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last year that killed 26 civilians. India has firmly maintained that the water pact will remain suspended until Islamabad demonstrates verifiable action to dismantle the state-sponsored infrastructure of cross-border terrorism operating from its soil.

The treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.