World should take note of Pak's nuclear bombs

Hindustan Times

11-05-2025

As I complete this article on Sunday morning, a tense peace prevails on the northern and western borders of our country. People heaved a sigh of relief when a ceasefire was announced between India and Pakistan on Saturday evening. However, the relief was short-lived as, within a few hours, Pakistani drones violated the ceasefire.
I hope the situation normalises quickly.
India's position, like always, is crystal clear. We don't want a war. Our fight isn't against a nation or its people, but a campaign against terrorism. The terrorists who have the blood of our citizens on their hands are now seeking refuge in their sanctuaries in Pakistan. We want to hunt them down and their masters who conspired and then gunned down 25 Indians and a Nepali citizen in the Baisaran valley of Pahalgam after singling them out for their religion. The annihilation of the criminals who carried out the massacre is our holy duty. New Delhi, under the leadership of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, is pursuing this path with single-minded focus.
While the Indian armed forces are conducting pinpoint operations, the Pakistani army is indulging in indiscriminate attacks across residential areas, showing an opposite behaviour. I saw on a foreign TV channel that the Pakistani forces were lustily shouting religious slogans after firing missiles. They haven't been told that religion is meant to bring people together and not to tear them asunder. The Pakistani ruling elite, too, is beset by the same problem. Have a look at the names of their missiles — Ghazni, Ghauri, and Abdali, among others. How can they forget that when these invaders from Central Asia entered India, the first place they plundered, raped and ravaged was the land that we today call Pakistan?
It's a tragedy that the rulers of Pakistan have been betraying every overture offered to them.
You may remember Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He once pompously claimed that Pakistan would fight India for a thousand years. His friend turned bloodthirsty foe, General Zia-ul-Haq, wanted to bleed and weaken India with a thousand cuts. Today, that grandiose plan is biting Pakistan back.
The expensive drones and missiles it fires on Indian targets are intercepted and destroyed mid-air. This is when within their country, people are ready to murder each other for a sack of flour! If this is not suicide, what then is?
Under the watchful eye of PM Modi, our armed forces have conducted successful attacks on various Pakistani installations with precision and a well-thought-out strategy. With the help of attacks on terror camps and Pakistan's military bases, India has sent a clear message to the global audience that we don't want war. We can and do exercise restraint, but we will not tolerate any attack on us.
I am sure that in the future, students of military science will study how step by step India evolved a new security doctrine, by avenging Uri, Pulwama, and Pahalgam.
If Pakistan doesn't mend its ways at this juncture, the consequences will be dire.
India will not be cowed down by the nuclear threats spewed by the Pakistani politicians or the generals sitting in Rawalpindi. People in India and around the world are now sick and tired of listening to this loose talk for the last three decades. I think this is the point where the comity of nations will have to shed their interests and considerations and address the fundamental issue of whether such an irresponsible nation should be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.
Never forget that Pakistan created its nuclear weapon with the financial aid provided by Libya and a few other Gulf countries. Bhutto and his aides would always claim that the Islamic world needs its own atom bomb. I don't want to look at terrorism and people through the prism of a religion, but the truth can't be brushed under the carpet.
Israel had plans to blow up the Pakistani nuclear plant in Kahuta as early as the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, General Zia got wind of it thanks to the stupidity of some prominent Indian political leaders, and the operations had to be aborted.
Tel Aviv still maintains its right to eliminate these facilities. On October 11, 2023, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview, categorically said Israel's paramount mission is to stop any radical Islamic government from building or acquiring nuclear weapons or letting it fall into the hands of such forces. Their number one target is Iran, and the second one is Pakistan.
Right now, fear pervades the top military brass in Pakistan that after establishing a decisive dominance over Hamas and removing Bashar al-Assad from Syria, it would now be easy for the Zionist-Christian coalition to subdue Iran this year. Once they achieve their goal, Pakistan would be the next target.
Pentagon strategists believe the way Taliban tendencies are rearing their head in Pakistani society doesn't augur well for its future. If, in such a scenario, their political system collapses, then there is every chance that Bhutto's dream of an Islamic bomb will become a reality. This does lead to an urgent need for the world to sit and take a call on Pakistan's nuclear assets and review its policies. The country has been fomenting trouble in India from behind the nuclear shield. The country that can offer sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, whose citizens have been found indulging in terror activities around the world, can't be left to plot mayhem by hiding behind a nuclear shield.
It would be better if the world awakens to this threat immediately.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. The views expressed are personal