`India will never restore Indus water treaty with Pakistan` 

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah gave an interview with Times of India on Saturday.

In the interview, he said, “India will never restore the Indus Waters Treaty with Islamabad”.

“No, it will never be restored,” Shah told the daily.

“We will take water that was flowing to Pakistan to Rajasthan by constructing a canal. Pakistan will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably,” Shah said, referring to the northwestern Indian state.

India put into ‘abeyance’ its participation in the 1960 treaty, which governs the usage of the Indus river system, after 26 civilians in Indian Kashmir were killed in what Delhi described as an act of terror. The treaty had guaranteed water access for 80% of Pakistan's farms through three rivers originating in India.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the incident, but the accord remains dormant despite a ceasefire agreed upon by the two nuclear-armed neighbours last month following their worst fighting in decades.

The latest comments from Shah, the most powerful cabinet minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, have dimmed Islamabad's hopes for negotiations on the treaty in the near term.