India on Thursday warned Pakistan to “temper its rhetoric”, adding that “any misadventure will have painful consequences, as was demonstrated recently”, in a reference to the four-day conflict between both countries in May.

“We have seen reports regarding a continuing pattern of reckless, war-mongering and hateful comments from Pakistani leadership against India,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The foreign ministry said it is a “well-known modus operandi of the Pakistani leadership to whip up anti-India rhetoric to cover up their own failures”.

New Delhi’s response came days after comments made by Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and the country’s former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

During a visit to the United States, Munir told members of the Pakistani-American community in Tampa, Florida, “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.”

Munir also warned that if India were to build a dam on the Indus river, Pakistan would destroy it with missiles, The Print reported.

In a similar vein, Bilawal Bhutto said that if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces an attack on the Indus river, “he attacks our history, our culture and our civilisation”, the Hindustan Times reported.

“The people of Pakistan have the strength to confront Modi in the event of war,” he said.

On April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 persons were killed, India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on water sharing, citing Islamabad’s support for “sustained cross-border terrorism”.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling.

India and Pakistan on May 10 reached an “understanding” to halt firing following the four-day conflict.