Mithun Chakraborty warns Pakistan after Bilawal Bhutto’s Indus treaty remarks

Actor-turned-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mithun Chakraborty on Tuesday issued a sharp warning to Pakistan following former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s fresh threat to India over changes to the Indus Waters Treaty.

Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Chakraborty said, “Agar aisi baatein karte rahenge aur humari khopdi sanak gayi toh phir ek ke baad ek BrahMos chalega” (“If such statements continue and we lose our patience, then BrahMos missiles will be launched one after another”). In a sarcastic aside, he added that India could build a dam where “140 crore people will pee” and release it to create a “tsunami”, clarifying that his remarks targeted Bhutto, not the Pakistani people.

His comments came a day after Bhutto accused India of attacking Pakistan’s “history, culture, and civilisation” through the diversion of Indus River waters, calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s water project a direct threat to Pakistan’s water security. Bhutto also linked the project to what he claimed was India’s military “defeat” in a May clash.

Bhutto has repeatedly warned of conflict over the river dispute, telling Pakistan’s Parliament in June that the country would “go to war” if denied its share of Indus waters.

India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in April, days after the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. Home Minister Amit Shah has ruled out restoring the accord.

The escalating rhetoric has been fuelled by recent remarks from Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir, who warned that Islamabad could use nuclear weapons in an existential crisis. India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the statement as “nuclear blackmail” and questioned the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear command, vowing to safeguard its national security.