MEA spokesperson says nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade
New Delhi: India on Monday said Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s fresh nuclear threat against it reinforced the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in that country where the military is “hand-in-glove” with terrorist groups and that New Delhi will not give in to any nuclear blackmail.
Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s “stock-in-trade”, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in its firm response to Field Marshal Munir’s reported remarks from the US soil, and asserted that India will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard its national security.
It is also regrettable that these remarks were made from the soil of a “friendly third country”, it said in an apparent message to Washington.
In an address to Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa, Field Marshal Munir reportedly said that Pakistan could use its nuclear weapons to take down India and “half the world” in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India.
The Pakistani Army chief also warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure if they hit water flow to Pakistan.
“We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” media reports quoted him as saying.
“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,” he added. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade.”
“The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” he said.
“It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country,” he added.
Jaiswal said India has already made it clear that “it will not give in to nuclear blackmail”. “We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security,” he said.
Government sources said the Pakistan Army chief’s comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their “true colours” of aggression.
It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said.
“Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the Field Marshal becomes the President,” said a source.
Field Marshal Munir’s remarks also demonstrated that the real nuclear instability in South Asia comes from a military that has its hand on the nuclear button rather than a civilian authority, the sources said.
“Will the US hold Pakistan accountable for such irresponsible and provocative comments from its soil, as President Donald Trump has time and again spoken about containing nuclear conflict?” asked the source cited above.
In his address, Field Marshal Munir also repeated his earlier remarks that Kashmir is the “jugular vein” of Pakistan.
Weeks before the Pahalgam attack, the Army chief had said Pakistan will not forget the issue of Kashmir, asserting that “it was our jugular vein”. His comments were trashed by India.
“Before the Pahalgam attack, Field Marshal Munir had given a statement that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together. This was followed by the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which people were asked for their religion and killed at point blank range,” said another source.
“This statement is a signal that more terrorist attacks would be undertaken and cover would be the Pakistan missile and nuclear capabilities,” the source added.
