An unnamed Pakistan Army general reportedly boasted that Islamabad could launch a nuclear strike against India within “eight seconds” and asked Britain to convey the message to New Delhi.
The claim is made by Alastair Campbell, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s communications chief, who was with him during his visit to Islamabad in 2001 soon after the 9/11 attacks.
According to Mr. Campbell, Pakistanis feared that India was “determined to take them out” and wanted New Delhi to be “reminded” of Pakistan’s nuclear capability. He claims that the “warning” came during a dinner in Islamabad on October 5, 2001 hosted by the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
“At dinner I was between two five-star generals who spent most of the time listing atrocities for which they held the Indians responsible, killing their own people and trying to blame ‘freedom fighters’. They were pretty convinced that one day there would be a nuclear war because India, despite its vast population and despite being seven times bigger, was unstable and determined to take them out. When the time came to leave, the livelier of the two generals asked me to remind the Indians: ‘It takes us eight seconds to get the missiles over,’ then flashed a huge toothy grin,” he writes in the latest volume of his diaries The Burden of Power being serialised in The Guardian.
Two months later, in December 2001, Pakistan-based terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament provoking international outrage.
Mr. Campbell says that Britain was so “alarmed” by the general’s boast that Mr. Blair’s foreign policy adviser David Manning warned that Pakistan was prepared to “go nuclear” in its standoff with India over the Kashmir dispute.
“DM (David Manning) had a paper, making clear our belief that the Pakistanis would 'go nuclear' and if they did, that they wouldn't be averse to unleashing them on a big scale. TB (Tony Blair) was genuinely alarmed by it and said to David ‘They wouldn't really be prepared to go for nuclear weapons over Kashmir would they?’ DM said the problem was there wasn't a clear understanding of strategy and so situations tended to develop and escalate quickly, and you couldn't really rule anything out,” he writes.
The India-Pakistan tensions were also discussed by the British war cabinet where Mr. Blair gave a “pretty gloomy assessment”. According to Mr. Campbell, Mr. Blair said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Indian Prime Minister , was “really upset at the way [Pakistan’s President] Musharraf treated him”.
“He assessed that the Indians believed that they could absorb 500,000 deaths. Pakistani capability was far greater than the Indians believed,” Mr. Campbell writes.
The article has been corrected for an error in the year of the Parliament attack.
Keywords: Alastair Campbell diary, Pakistan general remark, nuclear attack remark, Tony Blair, Pervez Musharraf, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 2001 Parliament attack, 9/11 terror attack
the 500000 should be a conventional warfare collateral damage count,
ofcourse if pak goes nuclear their .5 to 1 MT warheads could cause the
death of 1-5 millions indians on impact and probably an other 30
million on radiation exposure and fire. Because of Indias no first
attack policy and the possible destruction of command structures due
to first attack and the possible combined attack from pak and china,
there is very little hope for India. India should raise a boderline
troop of 4 million soldiers, arm them with everything we have and be
ready for a war on two fronts, if our kids are to survive.
India's Nuclear Command Authority is much too cumbersome and unwieldy to react to a Pakistani nuclear strike on us. Reportedly, Pakistan's equivalent structure is highly streamlined somewhat like that of NATO during the Cold War days. Pakistan is also emphasising on multiple independently targeted warheads on its missiles. We must not only streamline ours to be at par but also authorise our field Army Commanders e.g. Western, Southern, Eastern and so on, to launch tactical nuclear weapons if shove comes to push in war. This is particularly imperative in the Rajasthan-Gujarat sector where it is expected that the decisive battles will be fought in the next war with Pakistan.
It is all academic, there is absolutely no chance that the two countries would have any significant armed conflict, let alone a nuclear one.
A Chinese general with key position in the strategic area, once detailed to an American journalist what is China's nuclear attack plan against USA. At the unease of the journalist, the general added, of course all of that is in case of war, USA has one against us don't they? Key to peace is balance of power, the good thing about nuclear weapons is that this balance does not have to be anywhere near exact.
A friend has pointed out a hole in the story.The article says that Alistair Campbell was sitting between two five start generals.
There are at most two 4 star generals in service in Pakistan at a time; one the COAS and the other the Chairman JCSC. And if it was 2001, then Musharraf was himself COAS. I cannot imagine that protocol would allow this guy to be sitting between two such generals, or next to Musharraf, or Musharraf and the other general chatting away with Campbell in the presence of Blair. Thus if the story is correct then these two could have been at most three star generals. So, we see how he has tried to beef up his story by turning 3-stars to 5 stars. It seems that this is a made-up story, intended by the story teller to enhance his own image. I hope this story does not get undue credit by being referred to in any future articles.
But so what if they have nuclear weapons. We have those missiles that
can take out those nuclear weapons in mid flight. The radar detects them
and sends missiles to blast of the Pakistani missiles carrying nuclear
weapons. So what's the problem here if we have the capability to stop
nuclear attacks? Am I missing something here?
It is very rightly mentioned, I work with co-Pakistani workers and when ever there is a discussion on our relations, Pakistani say we will use nuclear weapons against India. It clearly indicate that it not Pakistani army's perception for nuclear war but the common man also think in the same way, public will force army to use nuclear in case there is a conflict.
its atrocious .
India's national psyche - especially among the political leaders - is based on a defensive Gandhian policy and Pakistan's is based on Jinnah's offensive dynamism. India is five times Pakistan's size but is only capable of making noises, not retaliating in kind. After Pakistan's terrorist strike on our Parliament, we deployed our armed forces purely for show because our leaders just did not have the guts to go to war. After 10 months of pussyfooting, we quietly slunk back. Earlier at Kargil too, Pakistan warned us not to cross the LOC else it would vaporise New Delhi with a nuclear strike and a terrified Indian govt tamely gave in. The world saw a weird spectacle wherein a modern Indian army used First World War tactics by attacking head-on superior Pakistani defences on dominating ground, losing 600 men over 2 months. A scared NDA stopped the army from crossing the LOC and attacking from the rear as Israel does. This would have finished the war in 2 weeks with minimum casualties for us
Great! Belligerent military commanders boasting their nation's destructive capabilities, while the nation struggles with constructive agendas. What would have happened after Pakistan launched a nuke strike against India? Surely, India would be so stunned, we would surrender meekly? This is one endless mockery of humanity and all good intent to live peacefully.
India made a blunder by detonating Nuclear devices and giving Pakistan
the opportunity to do the same. Today, both countries in Nuclear Arms
race, building and deploying strategic and Tactical Nuclear weapons.
India's conventional weapons superiority has been neutralized. There is
fear of Nuclear Armageddon and both countries are vulnerable to
exploitation by Super Power. What did India gain? Perhaps ego boost?
Perhaps an aspiration to be major power. IS Pakistan Crazy to first use
its Nuclear Weapons?
Almost ten years later after the alleged event, the timing of this public statement is suspect - perhaps aimed at triggering a bulk arms purchase by India and Pakistan and definitely targeted to bring profits and kickbacks to the US and Europe based warmongering weapons manufacturers and from them into the Swiss accounts of politicians in both the buyer and seller countries. Not to mention trying to upset the efforts for peace.Sagging economies of the west could be boosted by diverting all war budgets to boosting world trade and removing hunger and impoverishment.
Surely there are better ways of economic cooperation which can benefit the world econonmy as a whole by diverting collossal expenditure earmarked for war weapons by all countries improving the standard and quality of life of their own peoples? How long will blood thirsty, war driven economies of the world (so called developed west) overshadow human rights - that of right to life and quality life for all?
To me as an Indian, the fear is not of Pakistani nuke (I understand that
they are stupid enough to launch it) but of Indian politicians and
babus, are that capable enough to retaliate ? Most likely politicians
will threaten, beg for help from Western countries, impose sanctions and
then forget about it, ah and also plan a "blast-divas" in the memory.
I truly miss Madam Indira Gandhi as our PM.
With false bravado and blsuter, Pakistan has managed to hoodwink India and the world community for past 65 years. Such irrational and irresponsible behaviour has been rewarded and encouraged by both India and the west. That's why Pakistan continues to indulge in it.
Just recently, there was an article in this paper by a former senior Indian diplomat who advised that Pakistan has changed its stance based on a single comment by one general. You have to wonder, if the Indian diplomats even bother to look at the world in the cold light of reality.
Unlike India, Pakistan is run by the army and the civilians have no control over the nuclear weapons. Pakistan has threatened to use their weapons at every junction. Isn't it time for many of our retired diplomats to stay truly retired (and keep their opinions to themselves)?
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