India on Thursday made it clear that it will not reconsider its decision to keep the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support to cross-border terrorism.
At a media briefing here, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri charged Pakistan with creating legal roadblocks, hampering India’s legitimate rights to use waters under the treaty of 1960. ”It is because of our patience that we continued this treaty for the last several years,” he said.
Mr Misri said Pakistan deliberately did not respond to repeated calls by India for talks over the last more than six years to modify the treaty in view of technological advances. Islamabad, in fact, created obstacles so that India could not use the waters.
He said there were fundamental changes in the circumstances now that call for a rearrangement of the obligations under the accord.
Mr Misri also rejected Pakistan’s charge that India targeted the Neelum-Jhelum dam in Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
“It is absolutely fabricated and a blatant lie. India has only targeted terrorist infrastructure. If this kind of a claim is a pretext of targeting Indian infrastructure of similar nature, then Pakistan will be solely responsible for the consequences that will undoubtedly follow,” he added.