Islamabad, Aug 15 (IANS) Blaming the devastating floods sweeping Pakistan on India releasing excess water into the Satluj and Beas rivers, an editorial in a Pakistani paper Sunday called on the government to reject the ‘hypocritical’ Indian offer of aid.
‘The offer of aid is akin is throwing salt on our wounds,’ the editorial in the Urdu daily Nawa-i-Waqt said.
‘Bharat (India) has released water into the Satluj and the Beas and has also offered relief material worth $50 lakh,’ it said, referring to Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Friday speaking to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and offering $5 million for flood victims in Pakistan.
‘India on one hand is carrying out an indiscriminate massacre in occupied Kashmir and had the other day killed nine defenceless Kashmiris. It released water in the Satluj and Beas to exacerbate the flood havoc in Pakistan and and the other hand, threw salt on our wounds by offering us assistance of $50 lakh,’ the editorial said.
It called on the Pakistani government to decline, with thanks, the Indian offer of aid because ‘India’s attitude was hypocritical’.
‘It (India) has built dams to secure itself, and is releasing water into Pakistan’s rivers as part of its design to devastate Pakistan, using water as a weapon. Sometimes, it uses the water to flood Pakistan and sometimes, it restricts the flow to transform Pakistan into a parched desert as part of its conspiracy.’
The editorial said the Indian actions in Kashmir and through water showed ‘it was in effect waging a war against Pakistan which was causing the country extreme damage, while in an effort to hoodwink the world, India had expressed the offer for help.’
The Pakistani government should be extremely cautious of India’s ‘deceit and trickery’, it said, adding there were only two ways to counter India – ‘construction of major dams itself, and sustained efforts to free the occupied Kashmiri Valeey, where a genocide of Kashmiri Muslims was underway.’
‘If the Pakistani government falters on either of these two objectives, India will succeed in its unholy designs of dismembering Pakistan,’ the editorial said.
Pakistan is grappling with its worst ever floods that have left over 1,600 people dead and affected over 14 million people. A media report put the total economic loss due to the floods at around Rs.250 billion ($2.92 billion).
