Pakistan, May 31 -- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday drew the world's attention to India's "weaponization" of water by suspending Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, urging the world to not let millions of lives to be held "hostage."

India announced on April 23 that it was putting the 1960 World Bank-mediated treaty in abeyance after it accused Pakistan of backing an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. Islamabad has denied complicity and called for a credible, international probe into it.

The IWT grants Pakistan rights to the Indus basin's western rivers - Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab - for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower, while India controls the eastern rivers - Ravi, Beas, and Su...