India adhered to Indus Waters Treaty for 65 years despite so many provocations from Pakistan: MEA

New Delhi: Slamming the disinformation being spread by Pakistan on the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) following the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 which resulted in the death of 26 innocent civilians, India on Thursday said Islamabad has repeatedly rejected New Delhi’s several calls for holding negotiations on modification of the 1960 agreement.

“There have been fundamental changes in the circumstances in which the Indus Waters Treaty was concluded, and they called for a reassessment of the obligations under the treaty. Over the last year-and-a-half to two years, India has been in communication with the government of Pakistan, we sent several notices to them requesting for negotiations to discuss modification of this treaty. India has for six-plus decades now honoured the treaty, even during periods when Pakistan imposed multiple wars on us,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said during a media briefing in New Delhi on Operation Sindoor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured India’s unwavering resolve to act decisively against terrorism and those who support it and the Indian government has acted swiftly, taking several critical decisions against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam massacre.

By suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, India has deftly used international law as a tool to achieve its longstanding objective of ending Pakistan’s support for terrorism and reaffirming its previous stand that blood and water cannot flow together.

“Pakistan is the one that has been acting in violation of the treaty, deliberately creating legal roadblocks in India exercising its legitimate rights on the Western rivers. Any projects that India sought to build on the Eastern and even the Western rivers, which were allowed to as per the treaty, were always challenged by Pakistan thereby hampering our rights to use our legitimate waters under the treaty. It is India’s patience that we have been adhering to the treaty for the last 65 years even after so many provocations,” Misri stated on Thursday.

India has issued a notification to its Pakistani counterpart explaining the reasons for suspending the IWT highlighting the significantly altered population demographics, the urgent need to expedite the development of clean energy, and shifts in the assumptions related to water sharing under the IWT as fundamental changes that have led to its decision to suspend its treaty obligations.

“Pakistan has not responded to our requests to enter into negotiations for a reassessment of the obligations under the treaty. The conditions have now changed. This treaty was based on the engineering techniques of the 50s and 60s… Technological changes and advancements have to be taken into account,” Misri asserted while demolishing the false propaganda unleashed from across the border.

India has maintained that Pakistan has been exposed as a rogue state, fuelling global terrorism, and destabilising the entire region. The heinous Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent civilians were gunned down by four terrorists, two of them from Pakistan, has once again raised worldwide calls for punishing the country fuelling global terror.

Foreign Secretary Misri also warned Pakistan that any attempt at further escalation of the situation will be responded to in an appropriate domain.

“Now if there is an attempt at further escalation by Pakistan, it will be responded to in an appropriate domain and therefore the choice is entirely that of Pakistan to make,” said Misri.

Misri also slammed the disinformation directed at India from across the border since the events that started with the barbaric terror attack in Pahalgam, mentioning that the “original escalation” has been from Pakistan on April 22 and the Indian Armed forces are only responding to it.

“The allegations to the targetting of the Neelum-Jhelum dam project in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are absolutely fabricated and a blatant lie. India has only targetted terrorist infrastructure… If this kind of a claim is a pretext for targetting Indian infrastructure of similar nature, then Pakistan will be entirely responsible for the consequences that will undoubtedly follow,” he said.

IANS