Islamabad/New Delhi: In a fresh escalation bid, Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari warned India that his country is prepared to fight “on all fronts”.
This came after New Delhi reiterated that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will remain in abeyance until Islamabad credibly ends its support for cross-border terrorism.
While addressing a public rally, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman accused India of attempting to “weaponise” the waters of the Indus River and asserted that Pakistan would not compromise on what it called its rights over the river.
“Pakistan remains ready for war and will never compromise on Indus River’s rights. This is an attempt to weaponise the river waters against us,” he said.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had
recently said that the IWT “stands in abeyance” because of Pakistan’s continued support for cross-border terrorism.
“Pakistan must credibly and irrevocably abjure its support for cross-border terrorism,” Jaiswal said.
India suspended the IWT after the Pahalgam massacre. On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) named Pakistan-based terrorist and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed as an accused in the case.
Pakistan has continued to threaten India with war over the IWT issue. Last week, Pakistan’s climate change minister Musadik Malik issued a provocative warning, threatening to “cut off those hands” that sought to claim Islamabad’s share of water. Malik claimed that Pakistan had “already declared that anyone trying to deprive it of its water would face severe consequences”, as reported by timesnow.in.
“There is a tap being controlled by the prime minister of a neighbouring country. He says he will not let even a drop of water flow into Pakistan,” Malik said, the Dawn reported.
“But there is also the question of justice. We will protect ourselves…Not that we’ve just announced it, but we’ve proved that if anyone lays a hand over our share of water, we’ll cut off that hand,” the minister said.
Pakistan has taken the matter to international fora, but failed to make much headway, with India maintaining that the IWT is a bilateral deal in which no third party interference will be accepted.