Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, said in an interview on Pakistani TV that Pakistan would hit India with nuclear weapons if India threatens the country’s safety. His remarks come as India states it responded to attacks from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir with surgical strikes to neutralize terrorists while Pakistan claims no attacks from within their borders on India ever happened. Mr. Asif said,
“Tactical weapons, our programs that we have developed, they have been developed for our protection. We haven’t kept the devices that we have just as showpieces. But if our safety is threatened, we will annihilate them (India).”
Attacks between the two nuclear powers have increased with the latest being terrorist attacks on Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, Jammu, and Kashmir that resulted in the deaths of 18 soldiers and subsequently resulted in the deaths of the four attackers. India states it has handed over the evidence to Pakistani high commissioner, Abdul Basit, that the terrorists were in fact from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
This is not the first time Mr. Asif has lobbed threats of nuclear war directed at India and on September 17 he made such a threat:
“I don’t think there is any such threat but as Allah has said in the Quran, `The horses must be prepared’, so we should always be completely prepared. There is also a famous English proverb, ‘The price of freedom is eternal vigilance’… We are always pressurized (sic) time and again… that we have more tactical weapons than we need. It is internationally recognized that we have a superiority , and if there is a threat to our security, or if anyone steps on our soil and if someone’s designs are a threat to our security , we will not hesitate to use those weapons for our defense. [Referring to the use of nuclear weapons] This depends on the situation…but if our defence and survival is (sic) in danger, then we should use everything. What is there to fear?”
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