India hits back after Pakistan's Asim Munir makes nuke threat

Slamming Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir over his nuclear threat against India, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade", Mint reports.

In a statement on Monday, 11 August, the ministry said, “Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States.”

“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,” the external affairs ministry said.

The ministry expressed regret that “these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country”.

“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,” the ministry said. Meanwhile, sources in the government told news agency PTI, “There is real danger of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of non-state actors in Pakistan.”

Sources said that Asim Munir's threat from US soil showed that Pakistan is an “irresponsible” state with such weapons. They added that his statement “is part of a pattern”.

“Whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours.” “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,” the sources said.

What did Asim Munir say

The comments came after Pakistani military chief, Fielf Marshal Asim Munir said that Islamabad would take down “half the world” with it, if his country faces an existential threat in future with India.

“We are a nuclear nation; if we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us,” media reports quoted Munir as saying.

He said that Islamabad will defend its water rights “at all costs” if India proceeds with dam construction on the Indus River.

“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,” Munir told members of the Pakistan-American communicty in Tampa, Florida, according to a report published today in The Dawn.

Munir's nuclear threat came on the day the world marked the 80th anniversary of the US dropping an atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945.

Asim Munir's US visit

Asim Munir recently visited two US cities over the weekend and flew to Brussels on Sunday after completing his second high-profile trip to the United States in less than two months. Like his previous visit, he engaged with political and military leadership in the host country, Dawn reported.

In Tampa, the Pakistan army chief attended the US Central Command Centcom change of command ceremony. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations ISPR, his engagements included the retirement ceremony of General Michael E Kurilla, Commander of CENTCOM, and the change of command where Admiral Brad Cooper assumed charge.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, Field Marshal Munir met US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and chiefs of defence from other friendly countries. He invited General Caine to visit Pakistan and reaffirmed Islamabad's role as a key regional security stakeholder, Dawn reported.

(With inputs from ANI)