Jammu, Apr 26: Following Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s empty rhetoric on the Indus Water Treaty, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tarun Chugh on Saturday criticised Bhutto, noting that treaties hold significance only when there is trust between parties involved.
This came in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, after which India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, leading Bhutto to resort to empty rhetoric.
The BJP MP emphasised that the Government had made it clear that any country sending terrorists will not be spared, adding that no Indian water will be shared with anyone without valid reasons.
Chugh, highlighting the importance of ensuring that terrorists and their supporters face consequences, reaffirmed that India would take necessary actions to deal with such threats.
“PM Narendra Modi’s government has made it clear that the country that sends terrorists will not be spared. Not even a single drop of Indian water will be given to anyone for no reason… Treaties matter only where there’s trust… It is crucial to teach a lesson to terrorists and their masters. And India will teach them a lesson,” the BJP MP said.
Earlier on Friday, while addressing a public gathering in Sukkur, Zardari stated that just as the PPP did not approve a controversial canal project without consensus, Pakistanis will stand united and give a resounding response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggression on the Indus River, as reported by Geo News.
“The brave people of Sukkur have sent a clear message by participating in the rally that we will not allow anyone to bargain over the Indus…The Modi government is unilaterally suspending the Indus Water Treaty…but I want to stand by the Indus River in Sukkur and give a clear message to India that the Indus River is ours and will remain ours, either our water will flow from this Indus or your blood,” the PPP chairman said.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif had admitted that his country has been funding and backing terrorist groups.
In a video clip that went viral, Pakistan’s Defence Minister was in conversation with Sky News’s Yalda Hakim, when she asked him, “But you do admit, you do admit, sir, that Pakistan has had a long history of backing and supporting and training and funding these terrorist organisations?”
Khwaja Asif, in his reply, said, “We have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades… and the west, including Britain… That was a mistake, and we suffered for that, and that is why you are saying this to me. If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and, later on, the war after 9/11, Pakistan’s track record would have been unimpeachable.”
The Pakistani Defence Minister in the interview with Sky News presenter Yalda Hakim warned of an “all-out war” possible with India.
Following the terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, the Central government announced several diplomatic measures, such as closing the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari, suspending the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) for Pakistani nationals, giving them 40 hours to return to their country, and reducing the number of officers in the High Commissions on both sides.
India also halted the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960 in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also assured the country that the terrorists responsible for this attack, along with those who conspired it, will face punishment beyond their imagination.
