Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor Saturday responded to the Indian army chief 'nuclear bluff' claim, saying that such statements are unbecoming of a person of a responsible stature. The Pakistani military spokesman said, "We believe army chief is a very responsible appointment and four-star is a rank with age-long experience and maturity." During an interview with the state-run television channel, PTV World, on the statement of the Indian army chief, Ghafoor, when asked if India undertakes any misadventure against Pakistan, replied, "Well, it's their choice. Should they wish to test our resolve they may try and see it for themselves?"
The DG ISPR said that Pakistan has a credible nuclear capability, exclusively meant for threat from the east. "But we believe it's a weapon of deterrence and not a choice."
Responding to another question related to New Delhi's role in destabilizing Pakistan through state-sponsored terrorism, he said if India could overpower Pakistan through conventional engagement post-overt nuclearization, it could have done that by now. "The only thing stopping them is our credible nuclear deterrence as there is no space of war between the two nuclear states," the general said.
"That's why they are targeting us through sub-conventional threat and state-sponsored terrorism" he said while adding, "But they have failed on this account as well." Ghafoor further said, "We are a professional army, responsible nuclear state and resilient nation." They must not remain in illusion, he added.
Speaking in the run-up to the Army Day on January 15, Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on January 12 that "Pakistan's nuclear bogey" will be thoroughly exposed if it actually comes to a war with the western neighbour, which often brandishes its short-range Nasr (Hatf-IX) nuclear missiles as a battlefield counter to India's `Cold Start' strategy of swift, high-intensity conventional attacks into enemy territory. "We will call their bluff. If given the task, we will not say we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons," he said.
The Indian army chief was skeptical about US President Donald Trump's stern warning to Pakistan against harboring terrorists leading to any concrete change on the ground as far as India was concerned. "We will have to do our own job," he said, adding the US had its own "compulsions" to maintain relations with Pakistan.
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