Representative image of Tawi river during heavy rain
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: India has alerted Pakistan — through diplomatic channels — about a “high flood” in the Tawi River on humanitarian grounds, even though the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) remains in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack.
The information was forwarded via the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on Sunday. The decision to share this information was made on humanitarian grounds, said government sources here.
“The IWT is in abeyance, so the information was shared through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA),” said a source.
Ideally, such inputs are shared through the Indus water commissioners under the decades-old IWT, which has been in abeyance after a terror attack in Pahalgam, where terrorists targeted tourists, killing 25 Indian nationals and one Nepalese citizen, and leaving several others injured.
Pakistani authorities have since issued warnings based on the information India provided, Pakistani media reported, citing sources.
The World Bank-brokered IWT has governed the use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960. India’s decision to suspend it followed the killing of 26 people — mostly tourists — in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.
Tawi originates from the Kailash Kund glacier (also known as Kali Kund) in Bhaderwah in J&K’s Doda district. It enters the Sialkot district of Pakistan’s Punjab and joins the Chenab river.