Do not expect any restraint if there is a strike on nuclear installations, Pakistan has said.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Khawaja Asif was reacting to Indian Air Force chief BS Dhanoa’s remarks that New Delhi could “locate, fix and strike across the border” to counter Islamabad’s tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons.
Asif read from the reported remarks before making his own comments at a Washington think tank event.
“If that happens, nobody should expect restraint from us,” said Asif, who is known for speaking his mind and has made it clear that he is the Pakistan government’s spokesman to the world. “That’s the most diplomatic language I can use,” he also added.
Pakistan has the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenal, and has said it has developed tactical nuclear weapons to counter India’s cold start military doctrine, which reportedly envisages lightning thrusts into enemy territory by small and heavily armed units. The tactical nukes are also meant to offset India’s overwhelming superiority in conventional military hardware.
While answering a question on relations with India, Asif pulled out a folder that contained clippings of Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa’s statement, which was a conceptual one about the IAF’s reach. It wasn’t a direct threat of an impending military action.
