The Hindu : Musharraf won't rule out use of n-arms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 07, 2002

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Musharraf won't rule out use of n-arms

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON APRIL 6. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, has told a German magazine that he does not rule out the use of nuclear weapons against India as a "last resort,'' according to a British newspaper.

The Guardian today quoted Gen. Musharraf as telling Der Spiegel in an interview that if the pressure from India became too great, then "as a last resort the (use of) atom bomb is also possible.'' He said India had a "superpower obsession'' and was "energetically'' arming itself.

The newspaper did not give more details but recalled Gen. Musharraf's interview to The Hindu earlier this week in which he sharply criticised India for the arms build-up along its borders with Pakistan and accused it of expecting Pakistan to "come begging and crawling to it.'' Quoting from the interview in which he also said "we are not going to crawl,'' The Guardian said his remarks reflected Islamabad's "new aggressive posture.''The threat of use of nuclear weapons, it said, would cause "consternation in New Delhi'' and increase "military tensions'' in the region. It saw Gen. Musharraf's comments as "unusually aggressive.''

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