Will respond with force if water is diverted: Pak PM Shehbaz on Indus Treaty suspension

 Blood will flow if India stops river water, Bilawal threatens  

PTI, ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, APRIL 26:  Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that any attempt to stop, reduce, or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan would be responded to with full force and might. Sharif made this statement while speaking about the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty by India.

The Prime Minister threatened to use all options if the water of its share was stopped by India. “Water is our lifeline and a vital national interest, and its availability will be safeguarded at all costs and under all circumstances,” he said. Sharif added that the entire nation stood by the armed forces of Pakistan to safeguard every inch of the homeland. “Our valiant armed forces are capable and remain fully prepared to defend the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity against any misadventure,” he said.

Sharif said he regretted that India continued the pattern of exploitation, levelling baseless allegations and false accusations without a credible investigation or verifiable evidence.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has threatened that blood would flow in rivers if water is stopped. "The Indus is ours and will remain ours — either our water will flow through it, or their blood," the former Foreign Minister was quoted as saying by The News on Friday while addressing a public rally in the Sukkur area of his home Sindh province. The Indus flows through the province, and the Indus Valley Civilization city of Mohenjo-Daro flourished on its banks.

Bilawal said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed India is heir to a civilization thousands of years old. "But that civilization lies in Mohenjo-Daro, in Larkana. We are its true custodians, and we will defend it."

Bilawal said that Modi cannot sever the aeons-old bond between the people of Sindh and the Indus, adding that "the Indian government has cast its eyes on Pakistan’s water, and the situation demands unity among all four provinces to defend and protect their water."

He said that neither the people of Pakistan nor the international community would tolerate Modi’s "warmongering" or any attempts to divert the Indus waters away from Pakistan. "We will send a message to the world that robbery on the Sindhu won’t be accepted," the PPP leader stated.

Bhutto, who has also served as Pakistan's youngest foreign minister, said the country and its people condemned the recent terrorist attack in India because Pakistanis themselves remain victims of terrorism.