- NEW DELHI (IANS) -- Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf would not have dared to use nuclear weapons
despite claiming that it was only threats of a non-conventional war that
prevented Indian troops from crossing the border at the height of bilateral
tension in 2002, say Indian security experts.
-
- Musharraf would not have "dared" use nuclear
weapons even if Indian troops had forayed into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir
across the Line of Control (LoC) because Pakistan as a nation would have
been obliterated in the Indian retaliatory strike, they said.
-
- "Only a mad general would use nuclear weapons. Yahya
Khan would have perhaps used it because he was mad," said a security
analyst referring to the former Pakistani military dictator who let loose
large-scale repression in the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
-
- "But I don't put Musharraf in that category because
he is rational enough to understand the consequences. He knows even if
he is able to hit Delhi or Mumbai, retaliation by India would have wiped
out Pakistan from the face of the Earth," said the analyst, who did
not wish to be identified.
-
- Leading defence and security expert K. Subrahmanyam agreed.
-
- "The Pakistanis are past masters in doublespeak,"
Subrahmanyam told IANS, adding Musharraf's remark that he was ready to
resort to non-conventional war against any Indian attack was part of continued
"sabre-rattling" by Islamabad.
-
- "There is a certain similarity between the sabre-rattling
by Pakistan and North Korea," Subrahmanyam said, noting that the two
countries were also involved in clandestine exchange of nuclear and missile
technology.
-
- He recalled Musharraf had said in a television interview
in June that even talking about a nuclear threat was not acceptable.
-
- "Now he says he conveyed a warning (to Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and then he says he did not mean that. The
problem in dealing with Pakistan is you are not able to actually understand
what they are saying. They are always on a double game and doublespeak."
-
- Subrahmanyam said North Korea was resorting to nuclear
blackmail now because the U.S. had reacted in panic when Musharraf had
used the same technique by urging India to observe restraint.
-
- According to Subrahmanyam, "At no time was there
any decision by the Indian government to go to war. They were prepared,
but being prepared is one thing; it is another to actually go to war."
-
- Gen. S. Padmanabhan, who retired as the chief of army
staff Tuesday, has corroborated this.
-
- He said Monday that while the armed forces were ready
to attack Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism against India, the political
decision from the government never came.
-
- Indian officials also believe Musharraf's claim that
he was ready to use nuclear weapons against India was largely meant for
domestic consumption.
-
- "He wanted to show that it was India that backed
down" to defuse the tense, 10-month-border standoff between the two
countries and to tell his people that the army remained the best bet to
guard national interests, a senior official said.
-
- The security analyst who preferred anonymity said Musharraf
was trying to play on the "unreasonable fears" of the U.S. and
the West that India and Pakistan were on the verge of a nuclear war.
-
- "This is his New Year message. He knows U.S. attention
is shifting from South Asia. This is his way of telling them 'do something
about Kashmir, let me continue in power, don't disturb me'," he said.
-
- Copyright © 2001 IANS India Private Limited. All
rights Reserved.
|
