Bilawal Bhutto escalated tensions, warning of war if India alters the Indus Waters Treaty, a day after Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir threatened nuclear retaliation and compared Islamabad's standing to a "dump truck" against New Delhi.
Bilawar Bhutto said that Pakistanis were "strong enough for war to reclaim all six rivers". (File photo: AP)
A day after Army chief General Asim Munir's renewed nuclear threat to India, former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari warned of war if New Delhi moves ahead with altering the Indus Waters Treaty.
While speaking at a function organised by the Culture Department of the Government of Sindh on Monday, Bhutto accused India of attacking Pakistan and engaging in 'barbarism', declaring that "every Pakistani is ready to fight a war".
"Pakistan did not start this war; we have always spoken of peace. Pakistan's representatives have gone all over the world. We spoke of peace, but India spoke of war. But now that war has started. We would like to tell the Modi government from this land that we do not back down, we do not bow. And, if you think of carrying out such an attack towards the Indus, then the people of every province of Pakistan are ready to confront you, and this is a war you will surely lose," he said.
Furthermore, Bhutto said that Pakistanis were "strong enough for war to reclaim all six rivers", vowing that the country "will never bow down".
Earlier, during his second visit to the United States since the recent India-Pakistan conflict, Asim Munir issued a nuclear threat to India, warning that Islamabad was prepared to plunge the region into nuclear war and "take almost half of the world" down if it faced an existential threat in any future clash with New Delhi.
"We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us. We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, we will destroy it with ten missiles. The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property... We have no shortage of missiles, Alhumdulillah," Munir had said during a black-tie dinner in Tampa hosted by businessman and honorary consul Adnan Asad.
Issuing threats to India from American soil and touting Pakistan’s untapped oil and mineral wealth, the army chief inadvertently revealed his country’s starkly weaker position compared to India.
"India is shining a Mercedes coming on a highway like Ferrari, but we are a dump truck full of gravel. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?" he said.
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Published By:
Sahil Sinha
Published On:
Aug 12, 2025