New Delhi on Thursday warned that any misadventure from Pakistan’s political and military leadership would invite a severe response.
Ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal called Pakistan’s repeated anti-India statements a “continuing pattern of reckless, war-mongering and hateful comments”.
“It is a well-known modus operandi of the Pakistani leadership to whip up anti-India rhetoric time and again to hide their own failures. Pakistan would be well-advised to temper its rhetoric, as any misadventure will have painful consequences, as was demonstrated recently,” Jaiswal said.
On the award by the court of arbitration under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), Jaiswal said, “India has never accepted the legality, legitimacy, or competence of the so-called Court of Arbitration. Its pronouncements are therefore without jurisdiction, devoid of legal standing, and have no bearing on India’s rights of utilisation of waters. India also categorically rejects Pakistan’s selective and misleading references to the so-called ‘award’.”
Pakistan has welcomed an award issued by the court of arbitration on August 8, interpreting key aspects of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), calling the decision an affirmation of its rights over the Western Rivers.
On August 8, the court of arbitration ruled in Pakistan’s favour, stating that India must comply with the IWT when designing new hydroelectric power stations on rivers flowing west into Pakistan.
Jaiswal reiterated that, as per the MEA’s press release of 27 June 2025, the IWT stands in abeyance by a sovereign decision of India.
MEA’s response comes after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that his country would not allow the loss of “even one drop” of its share of the Indus.
His warning followed New Delhi’s decision to place the 1960 treaty on hold after the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack.
“I want to tell the enemy today that if you threaten to hold our water, then keep this in mind that you cannot snatch even one drop of Pakistan,” Sharif said, as quoted by PTI. “If you attempt such an act, you will be again taught such a lesson that you will be left holding your ears.”
India’s suspension of IWT operations is part of a series of punitive measures against Islamabad, which has repeatedly warned that blocking its water supply would be deemed an act of war.
Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called the suspension of the treaty “an attack on the Indus Valley Civilisation” and described it as the “biggest attack” on the Sindhu River. “People of Sindh raise their voices and reach the ground to save Sindhu (river) when such an attack is launched,” he said.
Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir during an address to the Pakistani diaspora in Tampa, Florida, warned that Islamabad would destroy any dam built to restrict water to Pakistan. “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,” he reportedly said. “The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property. We have no shortage of resources to undo the Indian designs to stop the river.”
Munir also reportedly hinted at nuclear threats, stating, “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” He warned that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could be deployed in the event of an existential threat from India.
The MEA dismissed Munir’s statements as Pakistan’s “stock-in-trade” and said they reinforced “the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in Pakistan, where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups.”
“It is regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country,” the ministry said on August 11, in a reference to the United States. It added that India would “not give in to nuclear blackmail” and would take all steps to safeguard national security.
