Bilawal Bhutto Issues Stark Ultimatum to India Amid Indus Waters Treaty Fallout

New Delhi:Amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari issued a fiery warning to New Delhi following the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Speaking at a highly charged public rally on Friday, Bhutto-Zardari asserted Pakistan’s unwavering claim over the Indus River, declaring, "The Indus belongs to us and it always will. Either our water will flow—or their blood will."The provocative statement comes in the wake of India’s sweeping retaliatory measures after the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, which left 26 civilians dead, many of them tourists. The Resistance Front (TRF), an organization believed to be linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack. India has held Pakistan-based elements accountable, escalating bilateral tensions.Following the Pahalgam attack, India not only suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 but also downgraded diplomatic ties, expelled Pakistani military attachés, and closed the critical Attari land route used for trade and transit between the two countries.Bhutto-Zardari, while addressing the crowd, accused India of shifting blame onto Pakistan to cover up its own intelligence failures and security breaches. His aggressive tone has further inflamed already strained relations, with both sides exchanging sharp rhetoric in recent days.In response to India’s actions, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened an emergency session with senior government officials, including Bhutto-Zardari, to discuss the growing crisis. The Pakistani leadership is reportedly reassessing its internal water resource strategies, including the controversial canals development project, as part of a broader countermeasure plan.The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank over six decades ago, has long been hailed as a rare example of cooperation between the two nuclear-armed nations. Its suspension marks a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict, raising fears of further destabilization in South Asia.As both nations harden their stances, international observers are urging restraint, fearing that water disputes could add a dangerous new dimension to their already volatile relationship.