India's decision to suspend the treaty marks a significant diplomatic shift. Pakistan depends heavily on these rivers for agriculture and civilian water supply. "Water cannot be weaponised," Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Reuters news agency on Monday, adding that "unilateral withdrawal has no legal basis".

Amid escalating conflict, accusations of continued strikes, and grave concerns that the two countries may engage in a full-out war, India and Pakistan agreed to an immediate cease-fire on Saturday, May 10,

India and Pakistan engaged in the most intense fighting in decades with four days of escalating conflict that included fighter jets, missiles and drones packed with explosives. It ended almost as abruptly as it began.