Pakistan defence minister has come up with a bizarre claim against India. According to Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the flood related crisis in Pakistan is not due to heavy rains or poor infrastructure in the country but “floodwaters flowing from across the border carrying dead bodies into Pakistan.”
During a visit to flood-hit areas in Sialkot, Asif told reporters that floodwaters flowing in from India brought with them corpses, livestock, and piles of debris hampering drainage efforts by municipal authorities, reported a Pakistani news portal, Dialogue Pakistan.
He also said that local people reported seeing corpses carried across the border and pointed out that Sialkot lies on streams flowing from Jammu and when excess water is released by India the region gets flooded.
While making the statement Asif was quick to mention that India had twice informed Pakistan before releasing water into the rivers.
Asif's comment has become a subject of ridicule on social media.
Taking to microblogging site X, one of the user Shazia Hussain wrote “Punjab was not allowed to build dams or even canals to handle floods by some of our own people due to their politics. Build Canals. Build Dams!”
“Build dams don’t blame enemy," wrote a second user.
India issues flood warning to Pakistan
India on Sunday (Aug 24) informed Pakistan about the flood situation in the Tawi river via its Indian High Commission to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry. This is the first time India has used this mechanism to alert Pakistan about the flood situation via the High Commission. This was not done through the Indus Waters Treaty, which remains in abeyance. The Indus Waters Treaty has been in abeyance after the Pahalgam terror attack. Ideally, under the Indus Waters Treaty, information is shared through the Indus Water Commissioner.