'If you block our water...': Amid tensions with India, Pakistan's DG-ISPR echoes Hafiz Saeed on Indus Waters Treaty

Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the current Director General of ISPR, seemed to parrot the line of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed on the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Lt Gen Chaudhry threatened India that if the water belonging to Pakistan is blocked, then there will be consequences. 

Addressing an event at a Pakistani university, Chaudhry said: “If you block our water, we will choke you”.The comment is eerily similar to Hafiz Saeed's previous comments on the water-sharing pact. 

As per videos on social media, Saeed said in a speech: “If you stop the water, God willing, we will stop your breath, and then blood shall follow in these rivers." While sharing Saeed's speech, Afghanistan MP Mariam Solaimankhil said that DG ISPR seemed to have taken notes from the US-designated terrorist. 

"He seems to have copied Lashkr e Taiba’s founder Hafiz Saeed word for word -- 'If India stops the water we will stop their breath'. I guess the Pakistani military establishment shares a script with recognized terrorists," she wrote on X. 

DG ISPR's speech came almost a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a big warning to Islamabad over the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which is in abeyance till further notice following the Pahalgam attack that claimed the lives of 26 people. 

While addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner, PM Modi said that Pakistan will not get India's rightful share of water. 

"If Pakistan continues to export terrorists... then it will have to struggle for every penny. Pakistan will not get India's rightful share of water. Playing with the blood of Indians... will now cost Pakistan heavily. This is India's resolve, and no power in the world can shake us from this resolve," Modi said at a public rally in Bikaner's Deshnoke. 

India has questioned the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan following the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attacks, as part of punitive measures against Islamabad for supporting cross-border terrorism.