ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday invited India to a comprehensive dialogue to address all contentious issues, including the Kashmir dispute and the water distribution, between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The prime minister floated this offer during his visit to the frontline area of Pasrur Cantonment in Sialkot, where he lauded the armed forces for giving an exemplary response to India under the ‘Operation Bunyanum Marsoos’ conducted in response to Indian strikes inside Pakistan following the Pahalgam incident. Pakistan had struck 26 Indian military facilities, including its airbases, using jets and missiles.
He said Pakistan’s response to the Indian attack on May 6-7 caused huge losses to the neighbouring country, in which the Pakistan Air Force downed multiple Indian Rafale aircraft. In reference to the Pakistani strikes on 26 military targets, the PM said Pakistan had “avenged” the 1971 war.
“You have taken revenge for the 1971 war…and now the whole nation is standing with you,” PM Shehbaz told troops during his address. He warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi against future aggression.
“If you again attack us, you will lose everything…,” the PM said in a warning to his Indian counterpart. “We are ready for war and dialogue. Now the choice is yours,” he said.
With reference to PM Modi’s recent address to the nation, PM Shehbaz said: “Do not dictate us. Water is our red line; don’t even think about diverting our water. Yes, water and blood do not flow together. You have also hit our Neelum-Jhelum water project. If the damage was severe, we could have destroyed your major dams, including Baglihar Dam.”
PM Shehbaz again asked PM Modi to shun differences and sit for a dialogue. “Let us extinguish this fire. Let us sit together to talk on Kashmir and water,” he added.
After the Pahalgam attack, India put the water treaty with Pakistan in abeyance, prompting a strong response from Pakistan. In an interview with an Indian media outlet last week, World Bank President Ajay Banga said there was no suspension clause in the Indus Waters Treaty.
“There is no provision in the treaty to allow for suspension the way it was drawn up. It either needs to be gone, or replaced by another one, and that requires the two countries to want to agree,” he said. He also said that the bank played no decision-making role and acted solely as a facilitator.
PM Shehbaz said the blatant aggression against innocent civilians resulting in the martyrdom of children, women and the elderly and calling them terrorists was utterly shameful and against all international laws, norms and morality.
According to the PM, despite Pakistan’s offer for a neutral probe, India deliberately evaded this path, as it had nothing to prove, and India launched the offensive based on a false pretext and bloated arrogance and ego, “for which it has got a very befitting response”.
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