In signs that the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty has infuriated Pakistan, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the country was the true custodian of the Indus civilisation and warned India that “either our water or their blood will flow through it”, India Today reported.

“The Indus is ours and will remain ours. Either our water will flow through it, or their blood will,” Bhutto said at a public rally on Friday, ratcheting up the tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack.

The treaty, signed in September 1960 after years of negotiations, governs how the waters of six rivers of the Indus basin are utilised and distributed between India and Pakistan. A suspension of the treaty will have astronomical implications for Pakistan in the future as it provides water for 80% of its agricultural land.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhutto said neither Pakistan, nor the international community, would tolerate his “warmongering” or bid to divert the Indus waters.

“He (Modi) says they are heirs to a civilisation thousands of years old, but that civilisation lies in Mohenjo Daro, in Larkana. We are its true custodians, and we will defend it,” Bhutto said.

In reality, the Indus Valley civilisation was spread over both modern-day Pakistan and large parts of western India.

Bhutto is the second Pakistani leader after its defence minister Khawaja Asif to target PM Modi after his rousing speech at a rally in Bihar earlier this week.

In a tough message to Pakistan, PM Modi has vowed to “identify, track and punish” every terrorist and their backers and would “pursue them to the ends of the earth”.

Bhutto, who has also served as Pakistan’s foreign minister, said Pakistan had already condemned the terror attack, which left 26 tourists dead, but India was blaming it to conceal the failures of its own government.

“India is unlawfully abrogating the treaty under which it had acknowledged that the Indus belongs to Pakistan,” he further said.

MNA/