Invoking the nuclear war threat once again, a Pakistan minister has said that countries supporting India over the Kashmir issue “will be hit by missile” and considered as an “enemy” of Islamabad.
“If tensions with India rise on Kashmir, Pakistan will be compelled to go to war. Those countries backing India and not Pakistan (over Kashmir) will be considered our enemy and a missile will be fired at India and those nations supporting it,” Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur was quoted as saying by ANI at an event on Tuesday.
The remarks come at a time when Pakistan has been snubbed globally over the Kashmir issue.
Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi on August abrogated Article 370, that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.
India has left no stone unturned to thwart attempts by Pakistan to internationalise the Kashmir issue at all the international forums be it at the UN or any other forum.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.
Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that there is a possibility of a conventional war with India that could go beyond the subcontinent.
“When two nuclear-armed countries fight, if they fight a conventional war, there is every possibility that it is going to end up into nuclear war. The unthinkable,” he said.
Prior to the PM’s statement, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while addressing media at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), had said that the “possibility of an accidental war with India cannot be ruled out”.
The comments came weeks after a Pakistani minister had reportedly predicted a “full-blown war between Pakistan and India likely to occur in the month of October or November”.
A day after the Indian government abrogated Article 370, Imran Khan had warned of “Pulwama-like incidents to happen again”.