India hits back at Pak Army Chief Munir’s nuclear threat during US visit

India on Monday countered the Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir’s open nuclear threat to ‘half the world’, pointing out the inherent ‘irresponsibility’ of making such a statement.

“Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States,” noted the statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, adding that, “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,” it added.

Calling the US a friendly country amid the tariff standoff, New Delhi said that it was ‘regrettable’ that such remarks were made “from the soil of a friendly third country”.

Reiterating its stand since Operation Sindoor that followed the horrific Pahalgam terror attack, India said that it “has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard national security”.

Speaking at a private gathering in the US, the Pak Army Chief had said, “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.”

Munir was attending General Kurilla’s retirement ceremony at CENTCOM.

The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) is a unified combatant command tasked with overseeing American military operations across the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia.

Notably, this is Munir’s second visit to the US in as many months after the April 22 terror attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 civilians dead.

The Resistance Front, an offshoot of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, had claimed responsibility for the massacre.

In his first meeting, Munir had held wide-ranging discussions on counter-terrorism efforts, rising tensions in the Middle East and enhancement of bilateral trade during his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in June, according to the Pakistani military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

According to the ISPR, the meeting, initially scheduled for one hour, extended to over two hours, “underscoring the depth and cordiality of the dialogue”.

The discussions, it said, also encompassed avenues for expanding bilateral cooperation in multiple domains, including trade, economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies.

(with inputs from syndicated feed)