Will not succumb to nuclear blackmail: India on Pak Army chief’s remarks

India on Monday reacted sharply to Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s latest threat on his country’s “nuclear prowess” saying New Delhi would not succumb to any blackmail, and that the international community should take note of the “irresponsibility emanating from such threats”.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while responding to Munir’s statement in the US, said, “India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all necessary steps to safeguard our national security…. Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade.”

Jaiswal called upon the international community to “draw its own conclusions from the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks”.

The MEA spokesperson also mentioned what could be expected if Pakistani nukes fell in the hands of terrorists. “It also reinforces 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.

Jaiswal said it is regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a “friendly third country” — the US.

On a visit to the US, Munir had yesterday cited the “nuclear prowess of Islamabad” and said that “if we go down, we will take down half the world”. He was speaking at an event hosted by a Pakistani national at Tampa Florida in the US.

The Field Marshal also questioned India’s decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty. Sources said Munir used the words “we will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, we will destroy it with 10 missiles”.

It’s Pakistan Army chief’s second visit to the US in less than two months.