Pakistan weighs its options, as India readies for war

Pakistan’s defense minister has invoked its weapons of last resort, issuing a thinly-veiled reminder of its nuclear deterrent

 

By Ajai Shukla

The Diplomat, 1^st May 2025

 

India’s military is reacting furiously to the terrorist attack at an idyllic, high-altitude meadow in Pahalgam, Kashmir on April 22^nd, 2025, in which heavily armed terrorists gunned down at least 26 unarmed tourists and honeymooners.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed retribution and promised that India will pursue the Kashmir attackers to “the ends of the earth”.

 

Believing an Indian attack imminent, Pakistan is readying its military. So far, India has apparently mobilized only its conventional (non-nuclear) weaponry. However, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif has invoked its weapons of last resort, issuing a thinly-veiled reminder of its nuclear deterrent.

 

Referring, as Pakistan usually does, to its nuclear arsenal as “strategic”, Defence Minister Asif told Reuters in Islamabad: “‘In the current situation, some strategic decisions have to be taken. So those decisions have been taken.”

The balance of this article can be read in the website of The Diplomat. Link pasted below:

 

https://thediplomat.com/2025/05/pakistan-weighs-its-options-as-india-readies-for-war/