United Nations, May 24: India has charged Pakistan with violating the Indus Water Treaty by trampling its spirit of goodwill through thousands of terrorist attacks and by obstructing the updating of the infrastructure to ensure its safety.
“Despite this, India has shown extraordinary patience and magnanimity,” said India’s Permanent Representative P Harish, responding to what he said were Pakistan’s campaign of disinformation about New Delhi suspending the treaty.
“India has finally announced that the Treaty will be in abeyance until Pakistan, which is a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border terrorism. It is clear that it is Pakistan which remains in violation of the Indus Water Treaty and not India,” he said.
After the massacre of 26 people by Pakistan-based terrorists last month, India said it was suspending the treaty reached in 1960 under the aegis of the World Bank to provide Pakistan a consistent share of the water from the Indus and its allied water resources.
Speaking at an informal meeting of the Security Council on protecting water in armed conflict, Harish outlined the problems that have arisen since the treaty was signed. “Far-reaching fundamental changes have taken place not only in terms of escalating security concerns through cross-border terror attacks, but also growing requirements for producing clean energy, climate change, and demographic change”, he said.
While the technology for dam infrastructure improved to ensure safety and more efficient water use, “some of the old dams are facing serious safety concerns”. He said that New Delhi formally asked Islamabad on several occasions in the last two years to discuss modifications of the treaty to no avail.
“Pakistan has continued to consistently block any changes to this infrastructure, and any modifications of the provisions, which are permissible under the treaty,” Harish said. Harish emphasised that while the fundamental basis of the treaty laid out in its preamble is a spirit of goodwill and friendship, Pakistan has inflicted on India three wars and thousands of terror attacks.
He added that these cynical acts continue to endanger the safety of our projects and the lives of civilians. “In the last four decades, more than 20,000 Indian lives have been lost in terror attacks, the most recent of which was the dastardly targeted terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam last month. In fact, in 2012, terrorists even attacked the Tulbul Navigation Project in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
IANS