The prospect of a military confrontation between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed countries, can no longer be ruled out. The two neighbors are escalating sanctions and threats following the terrorist attack on Tuesday, April 22, in Kashmir, against tourists, which killed 25 Indians and one Nepali. The attack was the deadliest against civilians in India since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which claimed 175 lives.

New Delhi immediately blamed its regional rival for the carnage and decided on a series of retaliations, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960 under the auspices of the World Bank. It is the first time India, which controls the rivers thanks to Kashmir, has taken such a measure. Islamabad retaliated on April 24, after a security council meeting involving government members and the military leadership, whose role is crucial in Pakistan.

In a statement, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who denies any involvement of his country in the Pahalgam attack, warned that "any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national powder." Pakistani Punjab, the country's grain basket and cotton producer, is entirely dependent on the Indus and its tributaries.

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