India denounced on Tuesday what it said were nuclear threats made by Pakistan and reiterated its policy of ”no first use” of nuclear weapons.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told a press conference that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and several ministers in his government had made veiled threats by speaking ”very casually” about nuclear weapons in recent press interviews.
”I do acknowledge it with some disappointment that General Musharraf and some ministers in his government, I do not want to name them, have talked of it (nuclear war),” said Singh.
The Indian minister added that the international community should ”take note” of an interview that Pakistan’s ruler gave the German magazine Der Spiegel.
”General Musharraf has spoken very casually about nuclearisation which is tantamount to nuclearisation of terrorism.
And in this we see an example of how promotion of terrorism and the threat of nuclear weapons is being held simultaneously,” said Singh.
”The international community has to take note of the seriousness of these two dangers. India has not ever spoken of nuclear weapons.
?India’s policy in this regard is clear, unambiguous and defined. No first use … that has been India’s stated policy.”
On May 11, 1998, India shocked the world by conducting
underground nuclear tests at Pokhran in the western desert state of Rajasthan.
The move was matched by arch rival Pakistan within a month, generating fears of a nuclear conflict on the sub continent.
While the threat of a nuclear conflict between the superpowers during the Cold War seemed too horrific to be realised, the edgy stand-off between the South Asian arch-rivals has set alarm bells ringing in Western capitals.
The concern is that if Pakistan has its back to the wall, with its population of 140-million outnumbered and outgunned by India’s one billion people, it could use nuclear weapons as a last resort.
Former Pakistani airforce commander Ayaz Ahmed said: ”Indian people should know that if Pakistan is faced with a defeat on the ground then Pakistan will use the nuclear option, because it is better to die than to live under Indian slavery”.
Fears of nuclear conflict have been exacerbated by Musharraf himself, who told an Islamic conference after Saturday’s medium-range surface-to-surface Ghauri missile test: ”We should be proud of this achievement. Allah-o-Akbar, Allah-o-Akbar, Allah-o-Akbar (God is great, God is great, God is great)”.
Islam is central to the tension between Pakistan and India, as it is based on the dispute over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which came under Indian rule after the partition of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.
The spark for the latest sharp deterioration in relations was an attack on May 14 which left 35 people dead and which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based insurgents.
India and Pakistan have deployed hundreds of thousands of troops on their common border following a rise in tensions after an attack on the Indian parliament in December, which New Delhi blames on Islamabad.
British magazine New Scientist has said at least three million people would be killed and another 1,4 million seriously injured if even a ”limited” nuclear war broke out between the rivals. – Sapa-AFP