Wednesday, Jan 08, 2003
Wednesday, Jan 08, 2003 |
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The Pakistani leadership should not talk of using the ``bomb'' and should abandon the idea of committing "suicide," he said. India's nuclear doctrine clearly laid down the policy of ``no-first use'' and employing its capabilities only as a deterrent. "But if the deterrent is not adequate and Pakistan uses the bomb, we will suffer a little but there will be no Pakistan left later. I hate having to say this but Pakistan should know its strengths and vulnerability and stop making these stupid statements,'' Mr. Fernandes said, addressing the ninth partnership of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Mr. Fernandes was referring to the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf's reported remarks at Karachi that a war between New Delhi and Islamabad was averted after the United States conveyed to the Indian leadership his country's resolve to wage a non-conventional war. Gen. Musharraf had spoken even earlier of using the nuclear option when he saw the size of India's troop deployment and its state of readiness. On the growing possibility of a U.S. attack on Iraq, he said in a brief interaction with the media that India would make efforts to see that the United Nations had the last word on the issue. The U.S. stand lacked transparency because it was saying different things each day about its objective — inspection of weapons, removal of armaments and overthrow of Saddam Hussain. "We will wait and watch for the final stand of the U.S.''
Speaking on ``Military Strategy: fighting the unseen enemy,'' the Minister said that the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban activists, having lost their jobs in Afghanistan, were looking at Kashmir and that Pakistan was willing to provide all material and logistic help to them. Though the Army was doing a good job in Jammu and Kashmir, the problem in eliminating terrorism involved ``jehad'' and Pakistan's support to it. It was ironical that Pakistan was still being considered by the U.S. as an ally in the global war against terrorism. "I am now convinced that we have to fight terrorism on Indian soil ourselves and not as part of global coalition. Yet, we will keep the commitments we have made to the coalition.'' The former U.S. Deputy Secretary for Defence, John Hamre, said though Iraq posed a problem to his country, Pakistan remained a far bigger threat. Gen. Musharraf had survived six assassination attempts by radical forces, which could pose a serious risk to Washington and New Delhi. The worst prospect was of the Taliban laying its hands on nuclear weapons.
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