‘We’ll cut off hands that stop Indus’: Pakistani minister’s threat to India

Pakistani minister Musadik Malik on Sunday threatened to “cut off hands” that would stop the Indus river’s water.

Malik was making an apparent reference to India holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance after the Pahalgam attack last year. He further said that India has also claimed Pakistan’s air.

“We have always maintained that we will cut off hands that would stop the waters. Not just water but we would also cut off hands that would lay claim to our air. Our military has already done this twice now,” said Malik at a press conference.

In an effort to internationalise the issue, Malik compared the Indus river system with Africa’s Nile, and said the river continues to flow freely despite any treaty.

But India has threatened to block the river even with a treaty, said Malik.

Last year, after Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in the deadliest attack in many years, India announced holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance. Under the treaty, India is allowed unrestricted use of all the waters of Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas rivers, and Pakistan has control of the Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum rivers. But analysts maintain that India could never utilise its share of the waters completely.

This is not the first time that Pakistani leaders have threatened violence over Indus. Last year, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister and a coalition partner of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said: “Either our [Pakistan’s] water would flow in this river or their [India’s] blood. We are the heirs of this river”.

In his press conference, Malik also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi controls the “tap” that supplies water to Pakistan.

Malik said that Indian had set an example for all upper riparian states. He wondered if all upper riparian states could similarly block the water supply to countries located downstream.

“Does every upper riparian now have the right to stop the flow of water to the lower riparian?… But we even have a treaty. […] How can the water be stopped here then? This is the case that we will present tomorrow,” said Malik.