A high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday resolved to cut off Indus water supply to Pakistan while putting the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan on hold, a source said.

The meeting, attended by Union Minister for Jal Shakti C R Patil and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, also decided to increase the storage and operational capacity of dams on the rivers covered under the treaty.

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The decision to suspend the treaty was taken by the government at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Wednesday, after the Pahalgam terror attack on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir that left 27 people dead and several others injured.

The Indian government has officially communicated to Pakistan about the suspension of the 1960 Water Treaty.

Secretary, Jal Shakti Debashree Mukherjee, in an official letter, had conveyed to her Pakistan counterpart, Syed Ali Murtaza, about the changes initiated under the circumstances that have taken place while linking the decision to national security concerns and the cross border terrorism that happens from Pakistan’s soil.

“The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the letter clarified.

Asserting that millions of people were dependent on the river water, Pakistan, in response to India’s decision, had called it an “act of war”.

The Indus Waters treaty governs the distribution of six rivers in the Indus basin. Under the agreement, the three eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej – were allocated to India, while Pakistan received rights over the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.

The World Bank has played a key role by being a signatory and mediator in facilitating the 1960 treaty after nine years of negotiations between the two countries.