Battle Cry: Pakistan Panics As India Holds Indus Waters Treaty
8:17
India has announced holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, issuing an ultimatum to Pakistan to stop terrorism. Pakistan is panicking, fearing water scarcity. The move doesn't mean blocking water flow, but cooperation under the treaty is on hold. India retains rights to work on projects like Kishanganga and Ratle. Pakistan's claim of this being an 'act of war' is seen as saber-rattling, as India has repeatedly warned Pakistan since the Uri and Pulwama attacks.
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India Today
10 hours ago
- India Today
Pakistan scales up defence budget, but who is really fuelling it?
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This comes after Pakistan's Planning Minister, Ahsan Iqbal, previously confirmed on May 23 that the federal government would raise its defence budget for the upcoming fiscal year. He cited the recent military escalation with India and New Delhi's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty as key factors behind the decision, according to a Pakistani daily, this, Pakistan's federal government approved an 18% hike in defence expenditure. It, too, cited the escalation in tensions with India as a key reason for the defence budget between India and Pakistan escalated after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, with India carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May has overused its military muscle and thereby its estimated military expenditure in its proxy wars against India. This, despite the Islamic Republic's lack of hesitation to seek monetary help, is a reality even acknowledged by PM Sharif. Yet, Pakistan continues to secure funding, loans, and bailouts, while evading meaningful accountability in curbing and acting on terror. At this juncture, one must ask: who is really funding Pakistan?PAKISTAN ON BORROWED FUNDS AND SUPPORT1. IMF SUPPORT FOR PAKISTAN: Pakistan has relied heavily on the IMF since 2023, securing a $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement to stabilise its September 2024, the IMF approved a $7 billion loan to cash-strapped IMF funds aren't directly used for military spending, they stabilise Pakistan's economy and allow the government to redirect domestic funds toward defence. 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CHINA: BIGGEST EXTERNAL FINANCIER: Pakistan's "Iron-clad brother", China, remains its biggest external financier and key military has decided to seek a rollover of around $12 billion in debt from key allies such as China in the 2024-25 fiscal year to meet a whopping $23 billion worth of gap in its external financing, as the federal government aims to achieve budget targets before the expected arrival of an IMF team to the cash-strapped country, according to a report by The Finance Ministry insiders said $3.7 billion from China will be rolled over, adding that the estimate of further new financing from China would also be included in the next financial year's budget, The Express Tribune newspaper reported in a third of Pakistan's total external debt is owed to China, much of it tied to infrastructure and energy projects under is Pakistan's most significant external financier and arms supplier, which is a well-known just with diplomatic or military cushion, this is how China helps and enables Pakistan to go scot-free. Islamabad knows that, given its strategic location and contemporary geopolitical alignments, Beijing would have its back, even at the cost of huge interest HELP FROM GULF NATIONS: The Arabian states of Western Asia have consistently backed Pakistan through sizeable deposits and loan rollovers to ensure IMF support. 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While the IMF doesn't fund armed forces, and China and other lenders may not openly admit it, together they keep afloat the security state that continues to prioritise defence, and its byproduct, terrorism, over Watch
India Today
10 hours ago
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A month into India-Pakistan ceasefire, Uri on LoC declares: ‘Bunkers a necessity now'
Broken walls, shattered windowpanes, damaged rooftops, tattered floor covers, broken utensils, ripped blankets, torn books, hollowed out wardrobes and suitcases—these sum up the scene in shelling-hit Gingal village of Uri in north Kashmir, some 16 km from the Line of Control (LoC) with amidst the ruins of her two-storied home, destroyed in the long-range artillery fire by Pakistan on the night of May 9, 39-year-old Misra Begum is still unable to reconcile with the loss. 'We're homeless now; our valuables of an entire lifetime are gone. My husband is a labourer; how will we build a new one (home)?' says Begum, recounting to INDIA TODAY the family's relentless struggles over the years to put together their over a month now, Begum, her husband and children—13-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter—have been staying at a relative's home nearby. Their devastated home symbolises the carnage caused by long-range shelling in the village of around 750 households between May 8 and 10, when Pakistan responded to India's Operation the vicinity, retired armyman Mohammad Naseer's home has been left with broken windows and holes in the roof. Some 300 metres away, a tw0-storied house has had its left wing, comprising four of the total eight rooms, damaged completely. 'The shelling shook our bodies; it felt like our ears were being torn apart. Had we not gathered in the kitchen, which is on the other side of the house, we would've been dead,' says 38-year-old Zahida Banoo, holding her two children. Her husband works in the Jammu and Kashmir like thousands of others in Uri, had fled her home to safer places when intense shelling by Pakistan wreaked havoc on the villages of Gangil, Lagama, Gharkote, Salamabad, Paranpilla, Bandi, Lagama and Dachi, among others. She returned after spending a week at her sister's home in Baramulla and another at a rented house in which hosts the head office of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), overlooking the 480 MW Uri-I power project on the Jhelum river flowing beneath into Pakistan, was perhaps the worst hit. Some 30-40 artillery shells, as per locals, landed in the village. Four homes were completely damaged and another 87 partially. The highly-guarded NHPC office, spanning over six acres, was also hit by shells—the damages caused to its residential buildings.'Windowpanes broke. There was fear all over; we hid inside bunkers,' informs E. Srinivas, deputy general manager at the NHPC installations near the LoC were put on high alert during the India-Pakistan offensive, owing to a potential threat from Islamabad in the backdrop of New Delhi suspending the Indus Waters Treaty after the terror attack in Pahalgam on April though, says Uri-I, the 240 MW Uri-II and 330 MW Kishanganga projects were fully secured and power generation was Naseer, a 33-year-old woman, shudders at the mention of 'war'. The four-day horror, May 7 to May 10, has left her with nightmares. She blames the media for the war hysteria at the cost of people's lives. 'Take us out of Uri and engage in the war, as much as you can. It looks easy from inside newsrooms; if you've the guts, exchange places with us,' she says, fighting been a month since the post-Operation Sindoor ceasefire with Pakistan, yet the residents of Uri grapple with fear and uncertainty. In recent years, the border villages here have had travellers trooping in, thanks to the tourism push by the government. Now, it has all come to a standstill.'The bullet has no eye to distinguish or differentiate. The deadly shells have damaged our buildings and left us all with lifelong trauma. We have lost sleep,' says Hafiz Zahid Hussain, a Bihar-origin moulvi at Gingal's mosque for the past 32 recall past wars between India and Pakistan, but say the use of long-range artillery this time and the damage it caused is unprecedented. According to an official assessment by the district administration of Baramulla, Uri tehsil suffered damage to 513 buildings—60 homes and five cowsheds were razed to the ground while 436 homes and 12 cowsheds were partially Karnah, in north Kashmir's Kupwara, over 100 buildings were damaged. Overall, in Jammu and Kashmir, Poonch in Jammu suffered the most, with thousands of structures reported to have been damaged. Of the 21 lives lost, 16 were in Poonch conflict has also triggered a bunker crisis in the border areas. Except for a few places like Salamabad and Gharkote, the villages in Uri are largely without bunkers, making them vulnerable to Ali, a resident of Paranpilla village, plans to construct a bunker in his farmland by taking advantage of its terraced design. 'We'll dig through the height of this land from tomorrow and concretise the hole, followed by cementing,' says Ali, sitting in his farmland by a flowing serenity of the surroundings belies the complexity of the situation. 'Bunkers are a necessity now,' decides to India Today Magazine
India.com
18 hours ago
- India.com
Sindoor Part-2: No Missiles Fired, But India Just Pulled A Strategic Trigger
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