Amid growing tensions with India following the brutal attack in Pahalgam, in Delhi-administered Kashmir, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has further heated the pre-war atmosphere by warning that if India dares to attack Pakistani territory, ‘nobody will survive in this world’: ‘If not us, then there will be no one.’ Both neighbouring and enemy nations possess a large arsenal of nuclear weapons.
‘If not us, then there will be no one. If our security is threatened, we will fight back with full aggression,’ Asif said during an interview with the private Pakistani news channel Samaa TV, according to numerous Indian media outlets. “If India dares to attack Pakistan and Pakistan’s existence comes under threat, nobody will survive in this world,” Asif insisted.
Pakistan has some 170 nuclear warheads ready for use, a number similar to India’s. Although Pakistan is not known to have long-range intercontinental missiles (ICBMs), which would limit a hypothetical nuclear attack on a global scale, and its missiles capable of carrying atomic warheads have a range of no more than 500 kilometres, a massive attack by Pakistan in which only 100 of its nuclear warheads hit large cities would cause tens of millions of deaths immediately – to which would have to be added twice as many victims from the effects of radiation – and would unleash a nuclear winter with catastrophic global effects, not to mention the possible response from other nuclear powers.
The Pakistani defence minister stressed that Pakistan is prepared for ‘any scenario’: ‘We have enemies on both sides of our border,’ he said, while accusing India of promoting terrorism on Pakistani soil – in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – and comparing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing both of being driven by political ambitions and ego.
‘Modi is bringing the region to the brink of nuclear war’
While Asif believes that a likely war with India – which Islamabad believes is ‘imminent’ – will be limited to the so-called ‘Line of Control’ dividing Kashmir, the minister warned that if war breaks out, it will be unpredictable: ‘If Modi takes any reckless step in the footsteps of Netanyahu, Pakistan’s response will be such that history will remember it,’ he insisted again.
Regarding India’s unilateral suspension of the 1961 Indus Water Treaty, which could deprive Pakistan of 80% of its drinking water, Asif reiterated that Islamabad will consider any deprivation of its water resources as an act of war: ‘If India constructs any structure to stop our water, it will be destroyed. Water is our red line. Future wars will be over water,’ he added.
The Pakistani defence minister’s statements come amid pre-war escalation in the region between India and Pakistan following the brutal massacre committed by a terrorist group on 22 April at a tourist resort in Indian Kashmir, where 26 people were killed. The New Delhi government accuses Pakistan of being behind the attack, which has sparked tensions between the two countries not seen in decades.
Last week, Pakistan had announced that it had ‘credible intelligence reports’ that India was planning an ‘imminent military attack’. In this regard, Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Modi during the interview of ‘pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war for political gains’.
Precisely tonight, the Indian army launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ attacking nine targets in Pakistan and in the Jammu and Kashmir region administered by Pakistan. This is the largest missile attack launched by India against Pakistan in peacetime, not counting the four wars (1947-1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999) that these arch-enemies with nukes have fought so far.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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