‘J-K’s Rivers Must Not Be Weaponised’: Mehbooba After Spat With Omar; PDP Calls For India-Pak Dialogue

A bitter exchange of words has erupted between Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and former CM and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti over the revival of the Tulbul Navigation Barrage project, following the temporary suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). 

Speaking to ANI, the PDP president criticised the Indian government’s suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. “I think it is unfortunate that the Indian government has suspended the Indus Water Treaty. Our CM Omar sahab knows that both the countries have come back from the brink of war and America had to intervene,” she said. “Many of our people have been martyred here, many villages have been destroyed. After so much destruction, now there is some relief. So, in such a situation, to say that we will build the Tulbul Navigation Barrage since the Indus Water Treaty has been suspended, I think this is a provocation. We should say things that increase peace; we should not say things that cause provocation.”

Criticising National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, she added, “Omar sahab is saying we will build a power project here, but he forgot that when he was the Union Minister, Farooq sahab, who was the CM, had gifted seven power projects to Delhi. I think New Delhi should also think about this and reconsider its decision. Pakistan should also reconsider its decision to suspend the Simla Agreement. We should resolve our issues bilaterally.”

On the Indus Water Treaty, she told news agency PTI, "It's a humanitarian issue. This should not be used as a weapon. We should not allow the rivers of Jammu and Kashmir to be weaponised. Jammu and Kashmir should become a bridge of peace between the two countries rather than become a weapon to punish each other."

The row began after Omar Abdullah, in a post on X, wondered whether work on the long-stalled Tulbul project on the Wular Lake in North Kashmir could now resume. “The civil works you see in the video is the Tulbul Navigation Barrage. It was started in the early 1980s but had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the Indus Water Treaty. Now that the IWT has been ‘temporarily suspended’ I wonder if we will be able to resume the project,” the National Conference (NC) leader posted.

He further said that the project, once completed, could enable navigation on the Jhelum River and enhance power generation, especially in the winter months.

The Centre had suspended the IWT last month in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, where the sharing of water resources between India and Pakistan was put on hold.

Reacting sharply to Abdullah’s statement, Mehbooba Mufti called it “deeply unfortunate” and “dangerously provocative” at a time when the region had barely stepped back from the brink of war. “J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Project amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan is deeply unfortunate,” she said in a post on X.

Omar Abdullah retaliated, accusing Mufti of attempting to score “cheap publicity points” and please those “sitting across the border”. “Actually what is unfortunate is that with your blind lust to try to score cheap publicity points and please some people sitting across the border, you refuse to acknowledge that the IWT has been one of the biggest historic betrayals of the interests of the people of J&K,” he said on X.

PDP Says 'War Is No More An Option' As It Urges India-Pakistan Dialogue

In the May 2025 edition of the PDP’s ‘Speak Up’ newsletter, Mufti reiterated her stand, writing, “War is no more an option; it is a disaster for the two neighbours.”

The newsletter detailed the recent tensions: “For a few harrowing days this month, the subcontinent stood on the edge of catastrophe. Missiles flew, drones buzzed across borders, and entire villages along the Line of Control braced for impact. It wasn’t just a skirmish—it was a brush with full-fledged war. Civilians on both sides paid the price. Children died. Families fled. Farmland turned into military outposts overnight. And for what? We are told it was to avenge terror. To send a message. To defend sovereignty. But even sovereignty has limits when the stakes are nuclear.”

It continued: “Once again, the people of Jammu & Kashmir were caught in the middle—squeezed between the ambition of men in power and the tragedy of geography. It didn’t matter that Kashmiris, too, were burying their dead. It didn’t matter that ordinary people, still healing from decades of loss, were pleading for peace. The air was thick with chest-thumping, not conscience.”

The newsletter also stated, “Nothing galvanises the national mood like the image of a strongman leader standing tall against a foreign enemy. But when war becomes a campaign slogan, it ceases to be defence. It becomes spectacle… Bullets must never become a substitute for ballots. Nor should they be an excuse to light fires that entire generations may have to extinguish.”

Concluding with a call for dialogue, the PDP said: “There is nothing brave about playing brinkmanship with nuclear consequences… Now is not the time for triumphalism. Now is the time for restraint—for de-escalation, for dialogue, for the quiet courage it takes to pull back from the edge.”

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