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Mumbai terrorist group threaten Indian ‘water jihad’

By Rob Crilly, in The Daily Telegraph
Lahore: Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of breaching the terms of a 1960 treaty governing the use of shared river systems, complaining that irrigation channels on its side of the border have emptied.

The issue has now been adopted by militants in Jamaat-ud-Dawah, widely regarded as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Jihadi group fighting Indian troops in Kashmir and responsible for the November 2008 wave of gun and bomb attacks that killed at least 170 people in Mumbai.

Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashka-e-Taibi and head of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, threatened a water war with India during a recent TV interview.

“Look at India’s attitude, especially after the 9/11 attacks. It has taken advantage of Pakistan’s weaknesses and made dams and stopped our water.

Pakistan, for its defence, will have to fight a war at all costs with India if it is not prepared for talks on Kashmir and water,” Saeed said in an interview with Frontline, a private TV channel.

His comments followed earlier statements claiming that control of water resources was being used as a weapon to weaken Pakistan.

“India is trying to hatch a deep conspiracy of making Pakistan’s agricultural lands barren and economically annihilating us,” said one.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since partition in 1947 and remain deeply divided over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Delhi broke off talks with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, which a senior Pakistan official later admitted had partly been planned in his country.

They resumed briefly in February but India insisted full negotiations would require Pakistan to prosecute those responsible for the Mumbai killings.

Manmohan Singh, of India, and Yousuf Raza Gilani, of Pakistan are expected to meet today on the sidelines of a summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation.

Officials said the question of water was likely to top the agenda.

The countries divvied up rivers originating in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, and flowing into Pakistan, according to the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty.

Pakistani campaigners believe the accord has broken down because India is taking too great a share to feed new hydropower plants and irrigate farmland.

Talks last month in Lahore failed to make progress with Indian officials arguing that better management would conserve Pakistan’s water supplies.

Farmers in Punjab province have staged angry demonstrations in recent weeks.

Hamid Malhi, coordinator of the Punjab Water Council, which represents farmers, said he believed the dispute could be resolved without conflict by amending the original treaty.

“What we fear is that if they fill all the dams and barrages they are constructing, they have the ability to squeeze us any time they like,” he said. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7639449/Mumbai-terrorist-group-threaten-Indian-water-jihad.html

One Comment

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