There have been episodes of Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif resorting to hyperbole, venomous language and theatrics. On April 4, Saturday, he was hit by the virus which all Pakistani politicians are attacked with. The virus that makes all of them speak ill of India, use intemperate language that leads to issuance of empty threats.
Not that there is anything surprising in hearing such a rant from a Pakistani, reared on a steady diet of anti-India, anti-Hindu hatred born out of Two Nation Theory(TNT) of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Be it military dictator General Ayub Khan, Z A Bhutto, General Zia ul Haq or Pervez Musharraf, anti-India statements and actions were a part of them all.
Speaking at Sialkot, a city located 11 km from Suchetgarh border and 38 km from Jammu city, Khwaja Asif threatened that Pakistan will target Kolkata this time. Incidentally, the eastern city of India is located around 2,000 km from the Pakistani capital Islambad, around 1,750 km from where he was making the statement.
It seems our western neighbour is getting nightmares as the anniversary of Operation Sindoor approaches. Within 24 hours of the terrorist attack, India had put Indus Waters Treaty(IWT) in abeyance saying the onus was on Pakistan now to stop terrorism. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had made it clear that any talks on IWT will be held only once Pakistan has furnished proof of ending terrorism.
It was perhaps the proximity to Union Territory(UT) of Jammu & Kashmir that triggered Asif’s thoughts. During Operation Sindoor in May last year, Pakistan had targeted the cities and towns located along 180-km long International Border(IB) in the Jammu region. However, most of Pakistani drones, as also artillery shells, were neutralised by the Indian forces. This had deeply frustrated the Pakistanis who had seen scores of their own locations go up in flames as the Indian bombs hit them.
Motormouth Basit
Barely a fortnight ago, former Pakistani diplomat Abdul Basit, who had spent some years in Delhi, had raised eyebrows by making similar remarks about Delhi and Mumbai. Speaking in thin air, Basit had said that Pakistan will not think twice to launch attacks on these Indian cities if it came under attack. It is another issue that he tried to impress later that such a compelling scenario was most unlikely!
Khawaja Asif claimed that any future conflict would not stay near the borders(200–250 km like May 2025 conflict) but escalate to places and locations far away too. “If India tries to stage any false flag operation this time, then Inshallah(God-willing), we will take it to Kolkata”, Asif said while speaking to reporters in Sialkot.
He claimed there were indications of a possible “false flag” plot involving “their own men or Pakistanis in their detention”. He seemed to suggest that bodies could be planted somewhere(in India) and a claim made(by India) that it was an act of terrorism(carried out on Pakistan’s behest). He did not offer any evidence in support of his allegations.
“Ghar mein ghus kar maarenge (We will enter their territory and strike them inside their own homes),’’ Asif said.
Genesis of Comments?
The remarks are similar to earlier warnings from Pakistan regarding the conflict moving far east(of India) too. Asif’s comments seem like a response to his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh saying that any “misadventure”(from Pakistan) would draw an “unprecedented and decisive” response.
Speaking in Keralam, Rajnath Singh referred to India’s response after the April 2025 Baisaran(Pahalgam) terror attack that had led to killing of two dozen Hindus, besides a local Kashmiri Muslim. “I would like to tell you the operation is not over yet. If such dirty actions are repeated by Pakistan, our armed forces will give a befitting reply which they would not forget ever”, he said.
A fortnight ago, Abdul Basit’s controversial remarks about targeting Indian cities in a hypothetical scenario had raised hackles in the defence establishment. “If America attacks Pakistan we have to attack India, Mumbai, New Delhi, without a second thought. We won’t leave it we’ll see what happens later”, Basit had said during a discussion.
If we take Pakistan’s record into consideration, such off-tangent remarks as those made by Khwaja Asif (and Basit earlier) are nothing new. At one time, former Pakistani Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had claimed that Pakistan possessed “tactical nuclear weapons” as light as 250 grams, designed for battlefield use. Most hand grenades used by different armies of the world, including that of the US, usually weighs around 400 grams!
Perpetual Falsehoods
These miniature nuclear devices were meant for use against Indians on the battlefield, he had claimed. According to experts, the lightest possible working nuclear weapons would still weigh between 10 to 15kgs. The smallest nuclear bomb was made by the US and it weighed around 23 kg, over 90 times heavier than Sheikh Rashid’s “tactical nuclear weapon”!
Pakistan’s alleged “hand grenade-sized” nukes, imagined and portrayed by Rashid, were never talked of again. There is no credible evidence that miniaturisation of nuclear weapons down to such small weights has been done anywhere in the world, leave aside Pakistan.
For another comparison, it will help to remember that the nuclear device used by the US against Japanese city Hiroshima in 1945 using a bomb named “Little Boy” weighed around 4,400 kgs. As such, Rashid’s claims regarding miniature nuclear weapons with Pakistan just seem like a flight of fancy, wild imagination and nothing more.
