‘Water or blood’: Bilawal issues stern warning to India

SUKKUR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday issued a fiery warning to India, saying any attempt to stop the flow of the Indus River would be met with force.

“The Indus is ours and will remain ours. Our water will flow — or their blood will,” he declared at a charged rally in Sukkur.

Bilawal accused New Delhi of launching yet another attack on the river by unilaterally suspending the Indus Waters Treaty after the controversial Pahalgam incident in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “Modi levelled baseless allegations against Pakistan to hide his own government’s failures,” he said, referring to the April 22 incident that killed 26 tourists.

He said the people of Pakistan would never accept India’s one-sided decision to scrap a decades-old international agreement. “You cannot just wake up one morning and decide to walk away from the treaty. Neither the world nor the people of Pakistan will accept it.”

Pahalgam attack — implications on Pak-Afghan relations

He praised the bravery of the Pakistani people and armed forces, saying any misadventure by India would be met with a crushing response at the borders.

Bilawal also spoke on domestic water distribution issues, reiterating that no new canals will be constructed without the agreement of all provinces. “This is now official policy. The federal government has agreed that nothing will be done without mutual consent through the Council of Common Interests (CCI),” he said.

He thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for respecting public concerns, saying that the PPP and PML-N had agreed no new canals would be approved without the will of the provinces. “The CCI includes representatives of all provinces and the Centre. Before this, decisions could be made by a simple majority. But now, we’ve ensured no canal can be built without provincial approval.”

Bilawal concluded by stressing that the water rights of all provinces would be protected under the 1991 Water Accord and the 2018 National Water Policy.