Shehbaz Sharif says Delhi tried to take advantage of 'human tragedy' in Pahalgam, Pakistan downed seven Indian jets

New Delhi: Pakistan on Friday described the April 22 terrorist attack at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir as “a human tragedy” and accused India of seeking political gains from the incident, while also charging New Delhi with violating international law by unilaterally putting the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, claimed that Pakistan had prevailed in the May 7–10 cross-border military flare-up with India. He asserted that Pakistan had turned seven of India’s fighter jets into “scrap and dust”. “The enemy came shrouded in arrogance; we sent them back in humiliation, delivering a bloody nose,” he said.

Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, had last month stated that India had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and a large aircraft. India’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Anil Chouhan, had earlier dismissed Pakistan’s assertion of downing six IAF jets.

Sharif, however, at the same time, also lauded United States President Donald Trump as “a man of peace” for averting a war in South Asia. He told the UNGA that “India’s tyranny in Kashmir” would end “one day soon”. He, however, also said that Pakistan stood ready for a composite, comprehensive, and result-oriented dialogue with India on all outstanding issues. “

The Composite Dialogue between India and Pakistan has remained stalled for 12 years since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government suspended it in response to the brutal killing of two Indian Army soldiers by the personnel of the Pakistani Rangers in 2013. Singh’s successor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made it clear that if his government were ever to hold talks with the neighbouring country’s government, only two issues would be discussed – the end of anti-India cross-border terrorism from the territory of Pakistan and the end of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of the areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir of India.

“South Asia requires proactive rather than provocative leadership. India’s unilateral and illegal attempt to hold the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in abeyance defies the provisions of the treaty itself as well as the norms of international law,” Sharif said on Friday. “We will definitely and ardently defend the inseparable right of our 240 million people on these waters. To us, any violation of this Indus Water Treaty represents an act of war.”

India put its 1960 Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan in abeyance immediately after a gang of terrorists, linked to outfits in the neighbouring countries, killed 26 people, mostly tourists, at Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. India, on May 7, also launched Operation Sindoor and carried out precision strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan.

Pakistan retaliated by targeting civilians in border villages and military installations of India. The cross-border flare-up ended on May 10.

“India sought to extract political gains from a human tragedy by spurning my sincere offer of an independent international investigation into the Pahalgam incident. Instead, it attacked our cities and targeted our innocent citizens,” Shariff told the UNGA, adding: “When our territorial integrity and national security were violated, our response was in accordance with the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.”