India has accused Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff Asim Munir of issuing threats against India while on a visit to the U.S. “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, we will destroy it with ten missiles,” Munir reportedly said at an event in Tampa, Florida, [reported the Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/pakistan-general-makes-extraordinary- nuclear-threat-from-us-soil/articleshow/123221028.cms). “The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property…. We have no shortage of missiles, Alhumdulillah” (an Arabic phrase meaning “Praise be to God"—ed.).
But he supposedly went beyond just threatening a dam that has yet to be built: “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” Munir addressed a closed-door dinner in Tampa organized by Pakistani businessmen. As far as this news service can determine, no video or audio of his remarks is available. (The Times of India admits that his remarks could not be verified, but were said to be splashed all over Pakistani press and social media.)
“Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade,” The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement in response. “The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” it said. “It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country. India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security.”
In a terse response to the Indian MEA’s statement, the Pakistani Foreign Office rejected the Indian accusation as “yet another demonstration of their chronic tendency to distorting facts and twisting statements out of context.”
