India warns Pakistan of 'painful consequences' over nuclear war rhetoric

New Delhi [India], August 14 (ANI): India on Thursday hit out at Pakistan over recent nuclear war threats by its Army Chief, cautioning that any misadventure would have "painful consequences" as demonstrated in the past.

"We have seen several statements and reports regarding the continuing pattern of reckless warmongering and hateful comments from Pakistani leadership against India," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during the weekly briefing.

"Pakistan would be well advised to temper its rhetoric as any misadventure will have painful consequences, as was demonstrated recently," he added, referring to India's 'Operation Sindoor' after the deadly attack on innocent civilians in Jammu Kashmir's Pahalgam, which took 26 lives.

This comes after Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, during his second and recent visit to the United States, threatened India with nuclear war, warning that Islamabad could plunge the region into a catastrophic conflict and "take almost half of the world" down if faced with an existential threat in the future.

"It is a well-known modus operandi of Pakistani leadership to whip up anti-India rhetoric time and again to hide their own failures," Jaiswal said.

Earlier this week, the MEA had issued a strong statement in response to Munir's remarks, calling nuclear sabre-rattling "Pakistan's stock-in-trade" and highlighting "the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks" while questioning the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state "where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups."

India had slammed remarks of Pakistani Chief of Army Staff during his visit to the United States in which he had made nuclear threat.

He also 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 Pakistani-American community in Tampa, Florida, according to a report published today in The Dawn.

"Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States. Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade," the MEA official spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added, "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." (ANI)

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