India has strongly condemned the Pakistan army chief, General Asim Munir, for his irresponsible and nuclear sabre-rattling remarks made during a recent visit to the United States. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) labelled such rhetoric as Pakistan's stock-in-trade and accused its military of being hand- in-glove with terrorist groups.
Munir's comments, made in Florida, included a chilling nuclear threat, where he reportedly stated that if Pakistan were to go down, it would take half the world down with it. The MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, expressed regret that such a statement was made from the soil of a friendly third country and reiterated India’s firm position that it would not give in to nuclear blackmail. New Delhi sources added that these threats reinforce well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military’s authority undermines the civilian government.
The Pakistani army chief also explicitly threatened to target India's economic assets for the first time, singling out the Reliance Industries refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat. In a closed-door event, Munir referenced a social media post with a Quranic verse and a picture of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, a move interpreted as an intent to strike India's economic power. The Jamnagar refinery is the world's largest single-site complex, processing 12 per cent of India's total crude, and its size makes it a symbolic target. India maintains that it is continuously evaluating and preparing for all threats to its sensitive installations.