The government response to the ghastly terror attack in Pahalgam is a masterstroke. By holding in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), it has placed a huge sword over Pakistan’s head. Some 80% of Pakistan’s cultivated land depends on the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — allotted to Pakistan under the IWT.

At present, India lacks the infrastructure to block or divert the western waters but has the capacity to cause significant water flow disruptions that could devastate Pakistan, and Islamabad knows this.

This could well be one part of the Union government’s response; the other half could be a military strike in the coming days or weeks. Pakistan had earlier declared that the revocation of the IWT would be “an act of war”. Well, the ball is now firmly in the Pakistan army’s court.

This is an appropriate response to the attack on defenceless tourists, where Hindu males were singled out and targeted, which was meant to strike terror and deepen sectarian divisions. The message was as much to the people of the country as its leadership, as one terrorist taunted a woman whose spouse he had sought, “Go tell Modi”.

The Pahalgam massacre, the worst since the killing of 35 Hindus in Doda in 2006, is a major setback to the Union government’s Kashmir policy. Besides the politico-military response, the government may need a change of course for its Kashmir policy that had seen the........

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