The external affairs ministry on Friday rejected reports that the release of river waters from the Indian side caused flooding in Pakistan and pointed out that official statements from Pakistani authorities acknowledged a rise in river levels because of heavy monsoon rain in catchment areas.
The comments by external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a regular media briefing came against the backdrop of the government’s decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance for as long as Pakistan continues to support cross-border terrorism. India suspended the treaty last year as part of a package of punitive measures following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Jaiswal pointed to Pakistani media reports alleging that the Indian side is “deliberately causing flooding in Pakistan” and described the accusations as “baseless and contrary to the facts”. A recent increase in the flow of the Chenab river was a “direct consequence of intense monsoon rainfall over Jammu and the adjoining catchment areas” during July 20-23, he said.
“Significantly, Pakistan’s own flood forecasting division, which is based in Lahore, in its flood advisory issued on July 22 – and let me also give you the time, it was issued at 1718 hours local time – attributed the high flood levels in the Chenab river to heavy rainfall over the upper catchment area,” Jaiswal said.
The flood advisory from the Pakistani side said that the “high flows at Marala were expected to persist before gradually receding as rainfall over the catchment increased”. Jaiswal added, “The rise in river flows is, therefore, a natural hydrological response to heavy rainfall and not the result of any deliberate action by India. Attempts to portray a weather-driven flood event as an upstream intervention are factually incorrect, technically untenable and contradicted by Pakistan’s own official flood advisories.”
Jaiswal also rejected claims in the Pakistani media that India had withheld flood warnings, and said the river flows on the Indian side during this period did not reach “extraordinary discharge levels” that required special flood warnings to be issued.
“Any suggestion that India deliberately withheld flood-related information is, therefore, without any factual basis. Nevertheless, like last year…India will continue to share high flood data with Pakistan on humanitarian grounds through diplomatic channels, as and when a situation arises,” he said.
Jaiswal responded to another question about the Pakistani side raking up the Kashmir issue and the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty at ASEAN-related meetings in Manila this week by saying that the Indian side had categorically rejected these remarks. “Our position remains unchanged and very clear. The Indus Waters Treaty remains in abeyance until Pakistan irrevocably and credibly abjures its support for cross-border terrorism,” he said.
