Pakistan leader threatens India with ‘nuclear war’ after New Delhi slams Bilawal Bhutto

In what seemed like a threat-laced rebuttal to India’s barb at Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto for his “uncivilised outburst” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Shazia Marri has now threatened India with nuclear war.

“India should not forget that Pakistan has an atom bomb. Our nuclear status is not meant to remain silent. We will not back down if the need arises.” Marri told reporters at a press conference while speaking in support of Bhutto, ANI said quoting BoI News.

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India on Friday (December 16) had slammed Bhutto for his remarks against Modi at the United Nations, calling it a “new low even for Pakistan”.

Marri said India should not expect Pakistan to keep listening silently if it keeps making repeated allegations against its neighbour.

“If you will keep making allegations against Pakistan again and again, Pakistan cannot keep listening silently, this will not happen,” ANI quoted her as saying.

Bhutto had called Modi “the butcher of Gujarat” in a reply to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s calling of Pakistan as “an epicentre of terrorism” and a nation that hosted terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

“Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India,” Bhtto said on Thursday (December 15).

The Indian Foreign Minister immediately condemned the remark in a statement while stating that Pakistan “lacks credentials to cast aspersions at India.”

“These comments are a new low, even for Pakistan. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has obviously forgotten this day in 1971, which was a direct result of the genocide unleashed by Pakistani rulers against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus. Unfortunately, Pakistan does not seem to have changed much in the treatment of minorities. It certainly lacks credentials to cast aspersions at India,” the ministry said in a statement.

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The ministry said Bhutto’s remarks stemmed from Pakistan’s “increasing inability to use terrorists and their proxies” and asserted that “make in Pakistan terrorism has to stop.”

Sharpening its barbs further, India said that Pakistan is a country that glorifies terrorists like Osama bin Laden, gives sanctuary to terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, and Dawood Ibrahim and boasts of being home to 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities.

“We wish that Pakistan Foreign Ministry would have listened more sincerely yesterday at the UN Security Council to the testimony of Ms Anjali Kulthe, a Mumbai nurse who saved the lives of 20 pregnant women from the bullets of the Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Clearly, the Foreign Minister was more interested in whitewashing Pakistan’s role. Pakistan FM’s frustration would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their state policy. Pakistan needs to change its own mindset or remain a pariah,” the Indian foreign ministry said.

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