Claim
After the Indus Waters Treaty was suspended, India stopped Pakistan's water, causing a water crisis and outcry in Pakistan.
“अब सिंधु समझौता टूटने के बाद जैसे ही पाकिस्तान में त्राह त्राहि हुई। पाकिस्तान में पानी के लिए हाहाकार मचा। हमने पाकिस्तान का पानी बंद किया।”▶ Watch source segment
Rationale
The claim contains a kernel of truth but overstates it. India did put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance (April 2025), stopped sharing hydrological data, and briefly reduced Chenab flows into Pakistan during May 2025 reservoir flushing, which triggered IRSA shortage warnings and genuine alarm in Pakistan. However, the anchor's assertion that 'we stopped Pakistan's water' (पानी बंद किया) is false as a blanket statement: as of the broadcast date, reporting and expert analyses (BusinessToday June 2026, Al Jazeera, CSIS) confirm India has not stopped water flow and lacks the storage and diversion infrastructure to do so — western-river flows largely continue, and Pakistan's difficulties stem mainly from lost flow data and predictability. The claim also inverts causality, presenting a sustained water cutoff as the cause of Pakistan's crisis, when the actual measures were treaty suspension, data withholding, and temporary flow manipulation.
Evidence
- https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/india-hasnt-stopped-the-water-flow-so-why-is-pakistan-sounding-the-alarm-539411-2026-06-27 BusinessToday (June 27, 2026, days before broadcast) reports India has NOT stopped water flow to Pakistan and lacks the infrastructure to do so; the abeyance mainly halted hydrological data-sharing, creating planning uncertainty rather than scarcity. ✓ reachable · archived
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/7/9/can-india-stop-pakistans-river-water-and-will-it-spark-a-new Al Jazeera analysis: India cannot realistically stop Pakistan's river water; it lacks storage/diversion capacity on the western rivers despite official rhetoric that 'not a drop' would go to Pakistan. ✓ reachable · archived
- https://www.csis.org/analysis/can-india-cut-pakistans-indus-river-lifeline CSIS assessment that India does not currently have the dam and canal infrastructure to cut off the Indus lifeline; effects are limited to data withholding and short-term flow manipulation. ✓ reachable · archived
- https://tribune.com.pk/story/2585972/how-indias-actions-on-chenab-threaten-pakistans-survival Pakistani reporting confirms the kernel of truth: after the April 2025 abeyance India briefly throttled Chenab flows (Marala inflows fell from ~35,600 to ~3,177 cusecs in early May 2025 during Baglihar/Salal reservoir operations), and IRSA warned of an early-kharif shortfall, prompting outcry in Pakistan. ✗ unreachable · HTTP 403
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Waters_Treaty Background: India placed the treaty in abeyance on April 23, 2025 after the Pahalgam attack; it remained suspended through mid-2026, but suspension of the treaty is not the same as stopping water deliveries. ✓ reachable · archived