At an event organized in the United States of America by the overseas Pakistani community for Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir, reports have emerged that the army chief threatened the world with nuclear blackmail.
“We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” he said in his address to the Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa on Saturday, as reported by several global news outlets.
Munir is on an official visit to the US and has engaged in high-level interactions with senior political and military leadership, as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora, the Pakistani Army said in a media statement. Munir said his second visit to the US in just one-and-a-half months marks a new dimension in Pakistan-US relations.
Many have criticized these ties, calling in question how a military chief of the Pakistan Army, known for its links to terror groups, and the widespread human rights abuse can be hosted by the US government, and threaten global destruction.
In Tampa, Munir also reportedly warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure if water flow to Pakistan was hit. He said that Islamabad would 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 said, according to a report in Pakistan’s local media. He also said that Kashmir was Pakistan’s “jugular vein”, adding that it was not India’s internal matter but an unresolved international issue.
Munir’s remarks are a reiteration of his anti-India rhetoric and hate speech.
Weeks before the Pahalgam terror attack, he had said that Pakistan would not forget the Kashmir issue, asserting that it was “our jugular vein”.
Two of the Pahalgam terrorists came from Pakistan, as per several media reports.
Reacting to these developments, Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi’s attention had been drawn to remarks reportedly made by Pakistan’s army chief in the US. He described “nuclear sabre-rattling” as Pakistan’s “stock-in-trade”.
He said the comments reinforced “well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups”.
Jaiswal added it was “regrettable” that the remarks were made “from the soil of a friendly third country” and reiterated that India “will not give in to nuclear blackmail” and will take “all steps necessary” to protect its national security.
Some commentators have urged Washington to react. “Washington should have reacted much stronger than it did. The fact that it was said on US soil seems to be a calculated insult by the Pakistani Army chief,” said British political commentator and author David Vance, in a report, published this Monday.
Vance expressed frustration over the US tolerance for Pakistan’s behaviour, saying, “I don’t understand why America or President Trump tolerates this. Pakistan seems to think they can say whatever they want on such sensitive issues.”