In increasing global outcry against the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar caused a storm by calling the attackers “freedom fighters” while speaking during a press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday. Pakistan had already officially denounced the massacre, which killed 26 people, most of them tourists.
Dar’s statement came after a series of Indian diplomatic and strategic retaliations, such as suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty and revoking all Pakistani visas. In defending Pakistan’s water rights, Dar threatened that any action to interfere with the supply of water under the treaty would be “an act of war.
Pakistan’s 240 million citizens rely on that water,” he said. “Any move to cut off or intrude on it will elicit a fierce reaction.
Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC) seconded Dar’s threats in a statement following a high-level meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The NSC declared that any Indian move to divert or impede water flows due to Pakistan under the treaty would be greeted with dire consequences, labeling such actions as amounting to war.
Adding fuel to the fire, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif blamed India for plotting attacks on Indian soil from across Pakistani territory. “If our citizens are harmed, India will have to face a tit-for-tat. Indian citizens will not be safe either,” he stated.
India has attributed the Pahalgam attack, perpetrated by The Resistance Front (TRF), an Lashkar-e-Taiba subgroup, to terror groups supported by Pakistan. The fatal attack has been referred to as the worst terror act in the Kashmir Valley since the Pulwama bombing of 2019.
As tensions continue to rise, the crisis is likely to further worsen the already tense India-Pakistan relationship.
