In response to Pakistan’s use of cross-border terrorism, India will postpone the Indus Waters Treaty, a senior government official informed The Hindu here on Sunday, May 11, 2025. According to the source, Operation Sindoor, which destroyed nine terror facilities inside Pakistan, established a “new normal” in which India would strike inside Pakistan “harder, bigger, stronger” if cross-border terror operations persisted.
According to the source, who participated in the decision-making process for Operation Sindoor, the Indian counter-terror campaign had not concluded despite the “understanding” of May 10 and New Delhi was not interested in holding a dialogue with Pakistan because “there is nothing to discuss at the moment even at a neutral location.”
The Indus Waters Treaty has to be modified to “make it suitable for the 21st century requirements of the Indian state’, the senior official said, and there would be rapid infrastructure development works in the rivers that were a part of the treaty. “The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 as a sign of goodwill between the two countries. But Pakistan has actually placed goodwill in abeyance with its use of terrorism against India,” the senior official said, adding that the decisions concerning the treaty would be part of a new, uncompromising orientation towards Pakistan.
“There is a new normal now. It is based on this understanding that if you hit us, we will hit you, and we will hit Pakistan harder, bigger, and stronger in response to terror attacks. We have maintained from the beginning that India did not escalate this matter and that it was Pakistan that started it [the escalation of hostilities] with the brutal attack in Pahalgam,” the source said.
The source contended that the May 10 “understanding” between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan occurred in the context of India striking eight airbases located throughout Punjab and Sindh, which, the official added, prompted Pakistan to contact some international stakeholders. Eventually, the DGMO of Pakistan contacted his Indian counterpart to request a halt in firing and military action.
Shortly after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made the announcement in a post on social networking site X, India accused Pakistan of breaking the “understanding.”
Officials described the selection of targets for ‘Operation Sindoor’ as a message for the Pakistani deep state and Inter-Services Intelligence, with Bahawalpur, Muridke, and Muzaffarabad seen as “symbols of the Pakistan deep state’s ties to cross-border terrorism”. These three locations, and most importantly Bahawalpur, have been active for decades, and Indian security establishment has watched Bahawalpur grow into a hub of training and indoctrination for terrorism since the days of Afghan jihad in the 1980s. Recognising its long history of terrorism against India, the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s headquarters in Bahawalpur was hit “with the most potent weapon available with the Indian Air Force”.
The source made it clear that India did not view the May 10 “understanding” as a ceasefire, claiming that Pakistan had frequently broken the 2021 DGMO-level truce, making the exercise ineffective. As a result, India considers Pakistan’s “entire landscape” as a legitimate target if Pakistan-based terror outfits carried out strikes in India.
According to the official, an Indian delegation would shortly depart to present the Pahalgam terror attack’s findings to the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee. The source insisted that the United States had been in contact with India since the news of the Pahalgam massacre broke, but that this had not weakened New Delhi’s stance in response to a query about U.S. President Donald Trump’s use of backdoor diplomacy to secure a halt in firing and military action.
“President Trump called PM Modi, who was at that time travelling in Saudi Arabia, to convey his condolences and express solidarity. Subsequently, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance called to find out what our response was going to be. We heard them but assured that there should be no doubt that we were going to hit Pakistan harder this time,” the official said, adding that the eight Pakistan Airbases that India had hit on the intervening night of May 9-10 were spread from Chaklala to Rahim Yar Khan and Jacobabad, which hinted at the reach of the Indian forces in engaging in a military confrontation with Pakistan.
