'Choke your breath..': Pak army official threatens India echoing Hafiz Saeed's rhetoric
Pakistan's military spokesperson, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry's choice of words to threaten India resembled the hostile rhetoric used by LeT founder Hafiz Saeed
A Pakistani military spokesperson has threatened India that if they block water, they will "choke" India's breath.
Notably, the words he used were strikingly similar to threats issued by terrorist Hafiz Saeed in the past, said reports.
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Hostile rhetoric
While delivering a speech at a university in Pakistan, the country's military spokesperson, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry reportedly said, “If you block our water, we will choke your breath.”
The army official was referring to India’s recent move to suspend the water-sharing treaty following a deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. But, what caught the attention of people were his choice of words, which closely resembled the hostile rhetoric used by Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
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Hafiz Saeed, who often makes inflammatory speeches against India and the United States, has also used similar language.
Hafiz Saeed had allegedly warned India in a video (from an earlier address ), “If you stop the water, God willing, we will stop your breath, and then blood shall follow in these rivers."
Mariam Solaimankhil, an Afghan politician and former Member of Parliament, said on X, "Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Pakistan’s DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry say the exact same line: “If India stops our water, we’ll stop their breath.” One is a terrorist. The other is a general."
Suspending Indus Waters Treaty
India has recently suspended parts of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attacks, which killed 26 people. This move is part of a series of countermeasures, which included Operation Sindoor, taken by New Delhi against Islamabad, accusing it of supporting cross-border terrorism.
The treaty, signed in 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, governs the sharing of the Indus River and its tributaries between the two countries.
Meanwhile, New Delhi, who has adopted a tougher stand against Pakistan’s alleged support for cross-border terrorism, has reiterated that “blood and water cannot flow together; talk and terror cannot go together” .