The Ministry of External Affairs issued a strong warning for Pakistan on Thursday following repeated nuclear and military threats against India. Field Marshal Asim Munir had sparked outrage earlier this week after vowing to “take half the world down with us” and threatening to destroy any Indian dams built over the Indus River. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed the sentiment days later — insisting that New Delhi would not be allowed to take “even one drop” of water belonging to Pakistan.
“We have seen reports regarding a continuing pattern of reckless, war-mongering and hateful comments from Pakistani leadership against India. It is a well-known modus operandi of the Pakistani leadership to whip up anti-India rhetoric time and again to hide their own failures. Pakistan would be well-advised to temper its rhetoric, as any misadventure will have painful consequences, as was demonstrated recently,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
Coup in the making?
Government sources had earlier told PTI that the recent comments were part of a ‘pattern in Pakistan’ that cropped up whenever the country received support from the United States. The unnamed individual had also suggested that the ’emboldened’ Pakistani military could attempt a “silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the Field Marshal becomes the President”.
Speculative reports have repeatedly suggested the possibility of a coup or indirect takeover following the elevation of Army Chief Asim Munir to the post of Field Marshall. He now wields extraordinary powers over state affairs — only the second person in Pakistani history to reach the lifetime rank. Munir has also visited the US twice in the past two months and even met with President Donald Trump for a luncheon in June.
‘Nuclear saber-rattling’
Munir had claimed on Monday that Pakistan could use its nuclear weapons to take down India and “half the world” in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India. He also insisted — while addressing the Pakistani diaspora in the US — that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure if it hit the water flow to Pakistan.
“We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us. We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,” media reports quoted him as saying.
The MEA had dismissed the remarks — contending that “nuclear saber-rattling” was “stock-in-trade” for Pakistan. Jaiswal noted that India had already made it clear that “it will not give in to nuclear blackmail”. He also said that New Delhi would continue to take “all steps necessary to safeguard our national security”.
(With inputs from agencies)