Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 12: As the Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s fresh nuclear threat against India, this time from U.S. soil, has evoked widespread condemnation, the AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday strongly criticised the statement and said it deserved a political response from the Narendra Modi government.
The Hyderabad MP said India being a strategic partner, this misuse of American soil was unacceptable to India and Indians. He demanded the central government must lodge their protest and raise the issue with the U.S. strongly.
Mr Owaisi in a post on X said: “Pakistan Army Chief’s threats & language against India are condemnable. That he did this from the US soil makes it worse. It deserves a Political response from the Modi government & not just the MEA statement.” The AIMIM chief said, knowing what Pakistan’s military designs are, India needs to modernise its armed forces. “The low budgetary allocation for defence by the Modi Government can’t continue any longer. We need to be better prepared,” he said.
India while condemning the statement, the External Affairs Ministry had stated on Monday, “Field Marshal Munir’s fresh nuclear threat against India reinforced the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in that country where the military is “hand-in-glove” with terrorist groups, and New Delhi will not give in to any nuclear blackmail.”
Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s “stock-in-trade.” it said in its response to Munir’s reported remarks from the US soil, and asserted that India would continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard its national security. It is also regrettable that these remarks were made from the soil of a “friendly third country”, it said in an apparent message to Washington.
The Congress had also condemned Munir’s remarks and said it was bizarre that the American establishment was giving such a man such special treatment.
In an address to the Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa, Mr Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India. The Pakistan Army chief also warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure, if New Delhi hit water flow to Pakistan. “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we will take half the world down with us,” media reports quoted Mr Munir as saying.
The Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said on April 16, General Munir made incendiary, inflammatory and communally-poisonous remarks that provided oxygen to the brutal terror attacks at Pahalgam six days later.
“On 18th June, 2025, Field Marshal Asim Munir is invited by President Trump for an unprecedented luncheon meeting in the White House,” Mr Ramesh said. On August 8, Mr Munir was in Tampa for a farewell function for the chief of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, who had earlier praised Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in counter-terrorism operations, the Congress leader pointed out.
“On 10th August, 2025, in a talk to US diaspora Pakistanis, Field Marshal Asim Munir makes the most dangerous, provocative, and totally unacceptable remarks on nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan,” he said. “The Congress condemns these remarks in the strongest possible terms,” Mr Ramesh added. “It is bizarre that the U.S. establishment is giving such a man such special treatment,” he said.
From the US soil, the former Pentagon official Michael Rubin slammed Munir and said Islamabad was behaving like “a rogue state” with the war mongering. He compared Pakistan’s de facto military ruler with Osama bin Laden, the terrorist behind the 9/11 attack, noting that Munir’s recent remarks were reminiscent of what the world has heard from the Islamic State. “Pakistan’s threats on American soil are completely unacceptable,” Rubin said.
The former US official pointed out that Pakistan’s nuclear threats could provide cover for terrorist elements to “go rogue” with nuclear weapons. He argued that Pakistan represents a fundamentally different challenge from traditional diplomatic disputes. “Americans look at terrorism through the lens of grievance…They don’t understand the ideological underpinnings of many terrorists. Asim Munir is Osama bin Laden in a suit,” he said.
Rubin further noted that Munir’s remarks were raising questions in many people’s minds about whether Pakistan can fulfil the responsibilities of being a state. “The Field Marshal’s rhetoric is reminiscent of what we’ve heard from the Islamic State,” he said.
Rubin suggested that the international community should consider allowing Pakistan to undergo what he termed a “managed decline,” potentially including recognition of breakaway regions such as Balochistan. He even raised the possibility of future military intervention to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
“It’s coming near time when, in a future administration, other SEAL teams should enter Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons because the alternative is simply too great to bear,” he said. According to Rubin, there was no reason why the USA should consider Pakistan a major non-NATO ally. He said, “Pakistan should be the first major non-NATO ally to be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, and should not be a member of the US Central Command anymore.”
Calling for a severe diplomatic action, he said, “Asim Munir should be persona non grata in the USA and never get an American Visa, along with any Pakistani official, till Pakistan explains itself and apologises.”