Pak Army Spokesman echoes Hafiz Saeed’s threats amid Indus Waters Treaty suspension
Islamabad: In a provocative statement echoing the rhetoric of banned terrorist Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan Army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry warned India against suspending the Indus Waters Treaty. Speaking at a public gathering, reportedly at a university, Chaudhry said, “If you block our water, we will choke your breath,” mirroring Saeed’s own inflammatory language.
The remark came in response to India’s decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan ceases its support for cross-border terrorism. The decision followed the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 people.
India officially suspended parts of the treaty on April 23. The agreement, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, governs water sharing between India and Pakistan across the Indus River and its tributaries.
Chaudhry’s remarks drew widespread comparisons to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, who is infamous for his incendiary speeches. A video circulating on social media shows Saeed using the exact same phrase in a previous address, raising concerns about the alignment in language between the Pakistani military and designated terrorist figures.
Responding to the rising tensions, India reiterated its firm position. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal emphasized that the treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan takes "credible and irreversible steps" to end terrorism. He asserted that “terror and talks can’t coexist” and that future dialogue with Pakistan would only concern the “vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Jaiswal added that India is open only to discussions on the extradition of wanted terrorists already listed and shared with Islamabad.
In a related move, India expelled two Pakistani High Commission staffers in New Delhi, declaring them ‘persona non grata’ for conduct inconsistent with their diplomatic roles. One has already departed India, while the other was given 24 hours to leave.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Bikaner, Rajasthan, echoed the government’s hardline stance. He warned that Pakistan would “struggle for every penny” if it continued its support for terror and emphasised that “playing with the blood of Indians will now cost Pakistan heavily.”
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Odisha hospital fire toll rises to 12 as 2 more succumb to burn injuries
Bhubaneswar/Cuttack (Odisha) (PTI): The toll in the devastating fire at government-run SCB Medical College and Hospital here climbed to 12 after two more patients succumbed to their burn injuries on Tuesday.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling informed the assembly that a total of 12 people died in the fire incident that took place at the trauma care ICU of the hospital early on Monday.
Terming it a "very sad accident", the minister said, "As soon as the fire broke out, the hospital staffers worked on a war footing to immediately shift 23 patients from the first floor ICU and adjacent wards of the trauma care centre. All of them were shifted to other ICUs and wards."
Seven patients of the trauma care centre died due to their critical condition while five other critically ill patients died while undergoing treatment in other wards and ICUs.
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Eleven medical staffers engaged in the rescue of the patients were also injured in the fire. The injured staff members are undergoing treatment and their lives are out of danger, he said.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Naveen Patnaik, visited the hospital on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also taken stock of the situation.
The state government has constituted a judicial panel to probe the incident, and also formed a fact-finding team headed by Development Commissioner D K Singh that visited the hospital. The team will submit a report to the chief secretary.
The blaze had erupted around 2.48 am on the first floor and is suspected to have been triggered by an electrical short circuit.
SCB Medical College and Hospital is the state's premier health facility, with nearly 2,700 beds and it serves thousands daily.
