NEW DELHI, Mar 19: Taking a pointed jab at Pakistan’s nuclear record, India has said Islamabad’s history of covert proliferation makes it a threat to the world.
The remarks came a day after US Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard flagged Pakistan as a direct nuclear danger to the United States. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said, “As far as Pakistan is concerned, they have a history. They have a history of clandestine nuclear proliferation, and statements like this again make it clear what kind of threat they pose to the world because of their clandestine nuclear operations.”
Gabbard, while presenting the intelligence community’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, said that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan were the most significant nuclear threats to the United States. While testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Gabbard said, “The intelligence community assesses that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems, with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our homeland within range.”
Speaking about Pakistan, she told lawmakers that the Islamic republic’s long-range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the United States. Gabbard identified Al-Qaeda and ISIS as significant and enduring threats to US interests abroad, with both groups maintaining a dangerous presence across parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan’s former foreign minister, said Pakistan’s nuclear programme was strictly intended for “credible minimum deterrence”, rather than global power projection. Pakistan’s primary motive for developing nuclear weapons was to counter India, but Islamabad’s nuclear ambition under its architect and a prolific proliferator, Abdul Qadeer Khan, evolved it into an “Islamic bomb” with intentions to extend and accelerate the technology to other Islamic nations, including Iran, former CIA officer Richard Barlow had said in 2025.
(Manas Dasgupta)
