LAHORE - Pakistan’s initiative to take the Kashmir dispute to the UN Security Council and India’s defence minister’s hint that his country may change the no first use of nuclear weapons policy if the situation so required should make it clear to the global community a world of difference in the mindset of the two neighbours of the subcontinent.
Islamabad has established once again that it wants to resolve the seven-decade dispute in the light of the world body’s resolutions. There can’t be a better approach. The UN had passed the resolutions and it should come out with a strategy to implement them.
But Indian defence minister’s threat not to rule out the possibility of the first use of nuclear weapons in a changed situation only exposes his country’s mental morbidity. It is only an attempt to bring Pakistan under pressure to give up its principled stand on the Kashmir dispute under the fear of the nuclear threat.
He is forgetting that Pakistan had remained undeterred even when India had carried out its first nuclear test (Pokhran-I) on May 18, 1974, which was the time when Pakistan was going through the agony of the dismemberment of what was once the world’s largest Islamic state. Islamabad knew very well the enemy’s designs and the meanness to which it could stoop to establish its superiority.
That was the time when Pakistan had started preparing itself to meet any challenge thrown by its eastern neighbour. Successive governments played their role in making Pakistan a nuclear power.
And it was in 1998 when the India carried out five nuclear tests – a development aimed to establish the country’s psychological superiority over its regional neighbours in particular and other countries in general. It thought that the nuclear capability would make its neighbours fall in line and behave.
But this was a gross miscalculation. That was an opportunity Pakistan was waiting for to show its capability in this field. Islamabad carried out half a dozen nuclear tests against five by India. Since then New Delhi has been behaving.
Indian defence minister’s latest threat is not unexpected for Pakistan. A country that has nuclear weapons can also use them against its enemy – and Pakistan is the biggest enemy.
But India must bear in mind what would be the situation in case Pakistan used them first – leaving none in New Delhi to retaliate.
According to a published report, both India and Pakistan have ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Quoting Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), it said India possesses nine types of operational missiles, including the Agni-3 that can reach targets up to 5,000 kilometres. Pakistan’s missiles can also reach any part of India, CSIS said.
Both countries also have smaller nuclear warheads that can be attached to short-range missiles (50-100 kilometres).
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Pakistan is estimated to have around 140 to 150 nuclear warheads, compared to India’s 130-140 warheads.
Those who rely on Allah’s help and also have a good balance of power with its enemy have nothing to fear.
The world knows that it is India that started the nuclear arms race in the subcontinent. Also, it is the first to make a veiled threat of use of these weapons. But the narrow-minded Hindus are forgetting that Muslims don’t fear death. In fact, luckiest is a Muslim who embraces martyrdom in a fight against Kufr.
India should also be mindful that in case of any war against Pakistan most of the tens of millions of Muslims living in that country would prefer to lay down their lives for the sake of Islam. A Muslim – no matter how weak his faith- would not like to die a dog’s death.