Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday renewed her opposition to the scrapping of the Indus Waters Treaty, wondering how chief minister Omar Abdullah supported the move despite being the head of the only Muslim-majority “state”.

Mehbooba also drew an analogy between the decision to stop water to Pakistan and the actions of Yazid, whose army had denied water to Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussain and his supporters during the battle of Karbala.

Delhi suspended the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan a day after a militant attack in Pahalgam killed 26 people on April 22. The decision was supported by Omar, who calls the treaty discriminatory for Jammu and Kashmir.

“PDP is the only party that acts as a bridge (between India and Pakistan). Others want to score points there (with Delhi). I had said why stop water? In today’s time, this is coming from the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Think it over. Are we Yazid?” Mehbooba told a gathering in Srinagar to welcome some disgruntled leaders back to the party fold.

“If we have differences with the government of Pakistan, what have people (in Pakistan) done? This water goes first to the other Kashmir, which we said in Parliament, is our part. But you have a chief minister of a state, that too the only Muslim-majority state, who says it is right. Farooq sahab is saying there should be a harsher action (against Pakistan) than Balakot. What does it mean? They want a war-like situation. We don’t want war,” she added.

Mehbooba said a war between India and Pakistan would destroy the world.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah had backed strong action against Pakistan to avenge the Pahalgam killings.

Mehbooba also accused the NC of scuttling a resolution in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly against the controversial Waqf Act to please the BJP.

She, however, defended her party’s decision to join hands with the BJP in 2015 for government formation, saying the goal was to prevent the saffron party from scrapping Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, which they eventually did in 2019.

The PDP president took pride in her stand during the India-Pakistan conflict, saying her party batted for peace when everybody was gunning for war.

“We will get nothing out of war. If two elephants fight, they trample the grass beneath their feet,” she said, underlining the impact that war would have on Kashmir.

Those leaders who rejoined the party included Aijaz Mir, Raja Waheed and Noor Mohammad. PDP bore the brunt of Delhi’s mechanisations after the 2019 scrapping of special status, with most of its leaders deserting the party. Many have since returned to the party fold.

“If PDP is strengthened, Jammu and Kashmir will be strengthened. India will be strengthened. The country on the other side (Pakistan) will also be strengthened. It is because we talk of peace. Guns, whether of militants or from this side, only emit fire,” she said.