The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday denied reports that inflow of river water from the Indian side caused floods in Pakistan and noted that official statements issued by Pakistani authorities acknowledged that river levels had risen due to heavy monsoon rains in the catchment areas.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal’s remarks at a regular press conference came against the backdrop of the government’s decision to keep the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty suspended as long as Pakistan continues to support cross-border terrorism. India suspended the treaty last year as part of a package of punitive measures in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Jaiswal referred to Pakistani media reports claiming that the Indian side is “deliberately causing floods in Pakistan,” and described the accusations as “baseless and inconsistent with the facts.” He said the recent increase in the flow of the Chenab River was “a direct result of heavy monsoon rainfall over Jammu and adjoining catchment areas” during July 20-23.
“It is worth noting that the Lahore-based Pakistan Flood Forecasting Department, in its flood warning 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.
“High flows are expected to continue in Marala before gradually subsiding as rainfall increases over the catchment,” the flood warning from the Pakistani side said. “Therefore, rising river flows are a natural hydrological response to heavy rainfall and not a result of any deliberate action on the part of India. Attempts to portray the weather-triggered flood event as an upstream intervention are in fact incorrect, technically indefensible and inconsistent with official Pakistani flood warnings,” Jaiswal added.
Jaiswal also rejected Pakistani media claims that India withheld flood warnings and said the river flows on the Indian side during this period did not reach “extraordinary discharge levels” that would require issuing special flood warnings.
“Any suggestion that India has deliberately withheld information related to floods is baseless. However, as last year… India will continue to share data related to high floods with Pakistan on humanitarian grounds through diplomatic channels, as and when the situation arises,” he said.
Jaiswal responded to another question about the Pakistani side raising the Kashmir issue and the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty in the ASEAN-related meetings in Manila this week by saying that the Indian side categorically rejected these statements. “Our position remains unchanged and very clear. The Indus Waters Treaty remains suspended until Pakistan irreversibly and credibly renounces its support for cross-border terrorism,” he said.
