New Delhi: India has sharply condemned Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s remarks in the United States, in which he threatened to destroy Indian infrastructure and issued a nuclear warning.
Speaking in Tampa, Florida on Sunday at a private dinner hosted by businessman, Munir said Pakistan would target any Indian dam on the Indus River, adding that his country had “no shortage of missiles.” He further warned that Pakistan could “take half the world down” if pushed to the brink.
In a strongly worded statement on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs 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. 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. It is also regrettable 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.”
Speaking to members of the Pakistani expatriate community at a reception organised by Adnan Asad, honorary consul for Tampa, Munir asserted, “We are a nuclear nation. If we believe we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” The Print reported the comments, said to be the first ever nuclear threats issued from American ground on a third country.
Munir also turned his attention to the Indus Waters Treaty, threatening military action against India if it builds dams that can curtail water flow to Pakistan. Taking note of the New Delhi act of suspending the treaty after the April Pahalgam terror attack, he asserted such an act could endanger “250 million Pakistanis at risk of starvation.” “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, phir das missile sey faarigh kar dengey [we will destroy it with 10 missiles]… Humein missilon ki kami nahin hai, al-hamdulillah [we have no shortage of missiles, praise be to God],” Munir was quoted as saying.
Munir’s comments came amid heightened tensions over India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. He claimed such a move could put hundreds of millions in Pakistan at risk of starvation and vowed retaliation against any Indian attempts to alter water flows.
