Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan’s Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi has issued a provocative threat to India. In a video now widely circulating online, Abbasi warned India to prepare for war if it moves to block the Indus river water flow to Pakistan.
“If they (India) stop water, they should be ready for war. Ghori, Shaheen, and Ghaznavi are not for display. We have not kept 130 atomic weapons as showpieces. You don’t know where they are located in Pakistan,” Abbasi declared. HT.com has not independently verified the authenticity of the viral video.
Abbasi’s threat comes on the heels of similar remarks by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who warned that “blood would flow in rivers” if India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty. Addressing a rally in Sindh’s Sukkur area, Bhutto Zardari asserted, “The Indus is ours and will remain ours—either our water will flow through it, or their blood.”
Tensions between the two nations have sharply risen after the Pahalgam terror attack, where terrorists gunned down at least 26 people, mostly tourists, at the Baisaran meadow in Jammu and Kashmir. The deadly strike was the worst in India since the 2019 Pulwama attack.
In response, India has taken strong diplomatic measures, including downgrading ties with Pakistan, expelling Pakistani military attachés, suspending the six-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty, and shutting down the Attari land-transit post, citing Pakistan’s alleged cross-border links to the terror attack.