Islamabad: Pakistan has rejected remarks attributed to India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and reiterated its position on the Indus Waters Treaty and the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi in a statement issued in Islamabad said that India was seeking to deflect attention from its own troubling record as a neighbour that promotes terrorism and contributes to regional instability.
The statement referred to what Pakistan described as documented instances of sabotage through proxies, covert support to militant networks and extraterritorial activities. It cited the case of Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav as an example of “organised, state-sponsored terrorism directed against Pakistan.”
Kulbhushan Jadhav was captured in Balochistan in March 2016 and later confessed to his association with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and his involvement in espionage and terrorism in Pakistan. He remains imprisoned in Pakistan.
On Jammu and Kashmir, the Foreign Office said India continues its illegal and violent military occupation of the region. It said that Pakistan would continue to extend political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle to realise their right to self-determination, in line with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The rebuttal followed public remarks by Jaishankar, in which he said India had the right to defend itself against “bad neighbours” and questioned why a country that, in his words, persists with terrorism should expect the benefits of neighbourly cooperation.
“Many years ago we agreed to a water-sharing arrangement … but if you have decades of terrorism there is no good neighbourliness,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying.
The Foreign Office statement also addressed recent discussion around the Indus Waters Treaty, calling it an international agreement “concluded in good faith and at considerable cost.” It warned that any unilateral departure from the treaty framework would “undermine regional stability” and “call into question” the credibility of commitments under international legal obligations.
The statement said that Pakistan would take “all necessary measures” to safeguard its rights under the treaty. KMS—12A