Pak army chief vows missile strikes over Indus treaty, warns of nuclear war from US soil: Report

Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s military chief, has warned that his country would be willing to unleash nuclear war in the event of an existential conflict with India, declaring: “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” according to a report by The Print. 

The unprecedented remarks — the first known nuclear threats delivered from US soil against a third country — came at a black-tie dinner in Tampa hosted by businessman Adnan Asad, Pakistan’s honorary consul there, the report said. 

Sources told The Print that Munir coupled his nuclear warning with threats over the Indus Waters Treaty, saying India’s move to place it in abeyance could leave 250 million people facing starvation. “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, phir 10 missile sey faarigh kar dengey [we will destroy it with 10 missiles].” He added: “The Indus river is not the Indians’ family property. Humein missilon ki kami nahin hai, al-Hamdulillah [we have no shortage of missiles, Praise be to God].” 

Guests were barred from carrying phones or recording devices, and no transcript was circulated; the account was reconstructed from attendees’ recollections, as per the report. Munir was in Florida for the retirement of US CENTCOM chief General Michael Kurilla. 

The visit followed an earlier meeting with US president Donald Trump, which drew criticism from pro-democracy voices in Pakistan since neither the country’s prime minister nor president has been invited to Washington. 

According to the report by Praveen Swami, Munir mocked India’s refusal to disclose its losses in the recent Four-Day War: “The Indians should accept their losses. Sportsman spirit is a virtue.” He said Pakistan was willing to make its own losses public if India did the same. Reading from prepared notes, Munir recalled: “Ek tweet karwaya tha with Surah Fil and a picture of [the industrialist] Mukesh Ambani to show them what we will do the next time.” The Qur’anic verse describes how Allah sent birds to crush an invading army with stones, leaving it “chewed-up straw.” 

“We’ll start from India’s East, where they have located their most valuable resources, and then move westwards,” he warned, as per the report. Using a metaphor for his diaspora audience, Munir said: “India is shining Mercedes coming on a highway like Ferrari [sic], but we are a dump truck full of gravel. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?” 

He also defended military involvement in politics, telling former minister Babar Khan Ghauri: “They say war is too serious to be left to the Generals, but politics is also too serious to be left to the politicians.” 

Calling on overseas Pakistanis to do more, he said: “Kisi ki maa kaali ho sakti hai, aur kisi ki dharti-maa kaali ho sakti hai, par maa maa hoti hai [someone’s mother might be dark-skinned, and the earth of someone’s motherland might be dark, but a mother is a mother].” 

Munir argued Pakistan is one of only two states founded on the Kalimah, the other being Medina and predicted divine blessings in the form of energy and resource wealth. He cited alleged new finds of rare earths, minerals and hydrocarbons, the report added. 

Commenting on India’s recent diplomatic strains with Washington, Munir quipped that Pakistan could teach the art of balancing rival powers. “The real reason for our success is that we are not misers. If someone does good work, we praise and appreciate them. That is why we nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Prize.”