Illegal nuclear activities are in keeping with Pak’s history: India

India on Friday said it has “taken note” of US President Donald Trump’s sensational claim that Pakistan has been testing nuclear weapons, asserting that ‘clandestine and illegal nuclear activities’ have long been a hallmark of Islamabad’s record.

“We have taken note of President Trump’s comment about Pakistan’s nuclear testing,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the weekly media briefing.

He added that clandestine and illegal nuclear activities were in keeping with Pakistan’s history that is centred around decades of smuggling, export control violations, secret partnerships, the AQ Khan network and further proliferation.

Jaiswal underlined that India had consistently drawn the attention of the international community to Pakistan’s dubious nuclear past. “India has always highlighted these aspects of Pakistan’s record before the global community,” he said, suggesting that Trump’s remarks further vindicate New Delhi’s long-standing concerns about Islamabad’s proliferation track record.

On Trump’s separate claim that “eight planes were shot down” during the May India-Pakistan skirmish, the MEA spokesperson said all details of the episode — referred to as Operation Sindoor — had already been placed on record.

“As far as Operation Sindoor is concerned, we have already fully briefed you on all activities associated with it. If you refer to our earlier statements and press briefings, everything has been set out clearly,” he said, urging mediapersons to rely on India’s official version.

Trump, during an interview to an American news channel earlier this week, had claimed that Pakistan had been testing nuclear weapons and later during a business event in Miami repeated the controversial assertion that eight aircraft were downed in a past India-Pakistan confrontation.

Responding to a question on a Pakistani minister recently visiting a Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked institution, Jaiwal said, “We all know which country is the global epicentre of terrorism. I need not elaborate more for you to get an answer to your question.”