Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday criticised Pakistan for claiming rights over water from rivers in the Union Territory, saying Islamabad should not claim to be sympathetic to Kashmiris while objecting to India’s use of its own river waters.
Abdullah's criticism came while responding to a question about Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's comments on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
Sharif had said that "every drop of water is our red line", and warned that Pakistan would give a "direct response" if its water supplies were threatened.
"We have always been saying that our blood has been sucked - these are our rivers. We had the first right on this. Pakistanis say they are great sympathisers of Kashmiris. But when it comes to water, their sympathy disappears. Where was their sympathy when we were denied permission to use our rivers?" Abdullah told reporters here.
He said that out of the six rivers, India kept three, which belonged to Punjab, and "our three rivers were handed over to Pakistan", and J-K has suffered since then.
"From then until today, we are suffering the consequences of this Indus Waters Treaty. We could neither draw drinking water from the Chenab, nor could we use the Jhelum for navigation by building a barrage on Tulbul, nor could we stop water by building a big dam on any of our rivers," he said.
The IWT was kept in abeyance after the Pahalgam terror attack last year.
"Our blood has been sucked, and now that the Indus Waters Treaty has been cancelled, it should remain cancelled so that we can make proper use of this water," the J-K CM asserted.
He also condemned the attack on Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
"We strongly condemn this, and such attacks should not take place. Before this also, there was an attack in Amritsar, after which it was stated that special care would be taken of his security, that there will be Z-plus security. But where is the Z-plus? The attack took place for the second time, this time he was even injured, and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment," Abdullah said.
He said such attacks should not happen in a democracy, and if there is any grievance against anyone, people can express that through elections.
"Attacking is very dangerous for democracy," he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
