Blocking Pakistan’s water will spark decades of fallout: DG ISPR
SLAMABAD: Pakistan has warned India of ‘generational consequences’ if New Delhi blocks Indus River waters, DG ISPR said, responding to a threat floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after last month’s border clashes.
In an interview with Arab News, Inter‑Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Lt‑Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said any attempt to choke water flowing to Pakistan would cross a “red line”.
“Only a madman would try to cut off water for more than 240 million people,” he said.
“If that day comes, the world will witness the fallout for decades.”
India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in April, blaming Pakistan for a deadly attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir—an allegation Islamabad denies. Early in May, India carried out cross‑border strikes deep inside Pakistan, to which Islamabad replied by hitting 26 Indian military sites. A US‑brokered ceasefire took hold on 10 May, but tensions remain high.
DG ISPR said the army will keep the truce “in letter and spirit” yet remains ready to answer any violation “proportionately and precisely”. He claimed India lost six aircraft—Rafales, a Mirage 2000, and an S‑400 air‑defence system—during the four‑day exchange. Pakistan, he added, could have shot down more jets “but showed restraint”.
The ISPR DG insisted lasting peace hinges on resolving Kashmir. “Until India sits down and talks, conflict potential will stay,” he said.
In a separate interview with RT Arabic, Chaudhry called Pakistan “a serious nation whose first priority is peace”. He revealed India itself requested the May 10 ceasefire after Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes under Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos.
He accused New Delhi of rejecting Islamabad’s offer for a neutral probe into the Kashmir tourist attack and instead “firing missiles at our mosques, martyring children, women and elders”. Pakistan, he stressed, had precisely targeted only Indian military objectives.
Chaudhry also repeated Islamabad’s long‑standing charge that India funds militant outfits such as Tehreek‑e‑Taliban Pakistan to destabilise the country.