India warns Pakistan of ‘painful consequences’ if it continued to indulge in ‘war-mongering’

India on Thursday hit out at Pakistan leadership over a series of repeated ‘war-mongering’ statements against New Delhi, warning that any “misadventure” would have painful consequences.

The sharp reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came in response to a question on a reported nuclear threat made by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir during his recent visit to the United States.

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Munir had threatened India with a warning that Islamabad would plunge the region into nuclear war and could take “almost half of the world” down if faced with an existential threat in a future conflict with New Delhi.

Sharply reacting to the remarks made by Munir, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while addressing his weekly media briefing, said, “We have seen several statements. We have seen reports regarding a continuing pattern of reckless, war-mongering and hateful comments from Pakistani leadership against India. It is a well-known modus operandi of the Pakistani leadership to whip up anti-India rhetoric time and again to hide their own failures.”

“Pakistan would be well-advised to temper its rhetoric, as any misadventure will have painful consequences, as was demonstrated recently,” said Jaiswal in response to a question on the recent controversial remarks made by Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir.

The MEA was responding to Munir’s remark during his recent visit to the United States, warning that Pakistan will never allow India to choke the Indus River and will defend its water rights at all costs even if its forces will have to destroy any dam that India sought to build on it.

“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it … The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property. We have no shortage of resources to undo the Indian designs to stop the river,” he was quoted as saying by leading Pakistani daily Dawn at an event organised by members of the Pakistani-American community in Tampa, Florida, last week.

India, having already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail, had reacted strongly to the comments made by Munir.

On Monday, Jaiswal said, “Our attention has been drawn to the 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.”

In the statement, the MEA also lamented that these remarks were made in a friendly third nation. “It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country. India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security,” the MEA statement mentioned.

Earlier in April, India had hit out at the Pakistani Army Chief for referring Kashmir as Islamabad’s “jugular vein”. “See, how can anything foreign be their jugular vein? This is a Union Territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally-occupied territories by that country,” said Jaiswal during a regular media briefing on April 17.