- NEW DELHI (AFP|Published)
- The head of India's ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party warned Pakistan
today that it would be "wiped out of the world" if it opted for
a nuclear strike against India.
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- "We will not be the first to use the nuclear weapon,"
BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy was quoted as saying by the Press Trust
of India in an interview with a television channel.
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- "But if it is used against us by Pakistan, its existence
itself would be wiped out of the world map," Krishnamurthy said.
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- India had enough nuclear capability to ensure that Pakistan
would cease to exist in the event of a nuclear exchange and no other nation
would be able to intervene, he said.
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- India and Pakistan came out of the nuclear closet with
a series of tit-for-tat underground tests in May 1998.
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- Krishnamurthy's warning came amid an upsurge in military
tensions between the South Asian rivals following the December 13 attack
on the Indian parliament, which New Delhi says was carried out by Pakistan-based
militants at the behest of Pakistani military intelligence.
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