“Pakistan Must Not Think Twice but Attack Mumbai, New Delhi, if US Attacks Pakistan;” Basit
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 22: Pakistani leaders’ favourite pastime since to be dreaming about attacking India. Hatred for India has gone down so deep in the minds of the Pakistani leaders that they see India as the only target to attack if any country in the world at any time attacks Pakistan.
The chilling remarks by a former Pakistani diplomat in India Abdul Basit that Pakistan “must not think twice but straightway hit Mumbai and New Delhi” if the United States ever targeted Pakistan, stands testimony to the Pakistani mindset in a war-like situation.
Attacking Indian cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai should be Pakistan’s “default move” if the country comes under attack from the US, Mr Basit said during a TV show. Abdul Basit’s provocative and irresponsible remarks were made in response to a question on US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s statements flagging Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile programme.
Basit said Gabbard’s “anti-Pakistan” worldview always comes to the fore. “She is Indian-origin after all. Pakistan’s deterrence is India-specific. Tulsi Gabbard saw our missiles, but not India’s Agni 5 and Agni 6. They are intercontinental missiles. We don’t have that kind of range. I pray this increases. We should at least be able to target Israel,” he said during an interaction on a Pakistani channel.
Basit, who served as high commissioner of Pakistan to India from 2014 to 2017, said it was expected that the US would not mention India while flagging Pakistan’s missile programme. “India is their strategic partner. We get carried away and think Pakistan has strong ties (with the US). It is true that after (US President Donald) Trump came, some things have improved, but we must remember that the US will never be our strategic partner in the long term,” he said.
“India and the US are strategic partners, like we are with China. You take whatever benefit you can from President Trump, but don’t think you have become a strategic partner. Don’t assume that not mentioning Agni 5 and Agni 6 was a mistake. They don’t see India the way they see Pakistan,” he said.
Basit was responding to Gabbard’s remarks in which she said Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile programme could develop into a threat to the US homeland. She said Pakistan’s efforts “potentially could include ICBMs with a range capable of striking the homeland”. Presenting the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment to the House Intelligence Committee, she said Pakistan is among countries “researching and developing an array of novel advanced or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads that put our homeland within range.”
“If push comes to shove, suppose the situation in Iran deteriorates, and Israel has its eyes on us, circumstances develop in which the US has its eyes on our nuclear programme and tries to destroy it… This is impossible, but just as a worst-case scenario… let’s say the US attacks Pakistan, even if the US is not in our nuclear range, what do you think is our option?
“India, we don’t have to do anything… If anyone casts an evil eye on us, we must not think twice and attack Mumbai and New Delhi. We will see what happens later. If we do not have a choice and the US attacks us… this is an impossibility… but the world must know that if anyone casts an evil eye on Pakistan… it will not have any option but to attack India,” he said.
He said think tanks in the US are heavily dominated by Indian-origin individuals, and they influence such an outlook. “We have limited missiles, and we know who is a danger to us. It is India. If India chooses aggression, we have the response. But if the situation turns bad, Mumbai and Delhi are going nowhere. They are not far. We don’t need intercontinental missiles for that, Tulsi sahiba. We will hit from here,” he said. He also reminded about the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. “We have shown a trailer earlier. Now we can do it sitting here,” he commented.
Meanwhile, in a surprising development Bilal Arif Sarafi, a commander of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was stabbed and shot dead by his family members after the Eid prayers in Pakistan on Saturday, sources said. The incident reportedly took place near the destroyed Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters near Markaz in Muridke.
The exact reason behind the murder is not known yet, but intelligence sources suspect a family dispute. Those involved in the murder have been arrested, sources added. Several videos claiming to show the aftermath of the crime have surfaced on social media, where the terrorist can be seen lying lifeless on the ground. However, their authenticity could not be verified.
According to reports, Bilal was responsible for the recruitment in the terror wing’s Muridke Centre by identifying young men to propagate their agenda. His job was reportedly to brainwash the people by providing them with ideological training. Bilal was not wanted in India.
Pakistan, which cultivated terror networks as instruments of foreign policy for decades, has become its own prey. The country ranked first on the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2026 for the first time, becoming the world’s most terror-affected country in 2025, with 1,139 deaths, 1,045 attacks, 1,595 people injured, and 655 hostages.
Across South Asia, Pakistan is the only country where the situation worsened in 2025 – every other nation in the region recorded an improvement. The two provinces in Pakistan that have witnessed the most terror incidents are Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, with 74 per cent of attacks and 67 per cent of deaths. The dominant terror group is the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – which conducted 595 attacks and was responsible for 637 deaths, or 56 per cent of all terrorism fatalities in the country in 2025.
