Nuclear sabre-rattling: India hits back at Pak Army chief

RESPONDING TO PAKISTAN Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's latest diatribe against India, New Delhi on Monday said India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and underlined that it would "take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security".

- SHUBHAJIT ROY

According to a PTI report, Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat during an address to the Pakistani diaspora in Florida's Tampa on Saturday. "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying. There is no text of the speech or a video to confirm these comments.

"Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States. Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade.

The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.