The Indian government has suspended an old water sharing treaty with Pakistan, a move seen as an existential threat to Pakistan’s massive agriculture sector, after a deadly attack on tourists in its Kashmir region.

Reports on Wednesday indicated that the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security, which is the country’s top decision-maker on national security issues, had approved the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, an agreement signed in 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, which governs the use of six rivers in the Indus Basin.

The decision came a day after 26 people, including one foreign national, were killed in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir in an attack which the Indian authorities said had “cross-border linkages”.

Under the treaty, Pakistan was entitled to 80% of the water shares from the Indus Basin rivers, which it fed to its agriculture and hydropower plants.

More than 140 million people in Pakistan rely on the water supplied from the rivers, making the system an existential lifeline for the country.

The website of the Indian economic magazine Business Today said in a report that suspending the water sharing agreement removes limits on India’s control on water supplies to Pakistan.

It described India’s decision as deliberately timed to hit Pakistan “where it hurts most—agriculture, food, water, and energy security.”

The report said that the move could threaten food security for millions, leading to unrest in Pakistani cities and migration in rural regions while it would cripple the country’s electricity sector, affecting power supplies to industries and households.

Pakistani authorities have yet to react to the move, which many believe could trigger a new diplomatic escalation between the two nuclear neighbors.

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