Question : Pakistani officials have threatened to use nuclear weapons should India invade, after India's new army chief admitted to clandestine military plans for attacking its neighbour in the event of a crisis.
Three officials in Islamabad have revealed that Pakistan would take all necessary measures to defend itself should India ever put into action Iong-rumoured "cold-start" plans to attack Pakistani territory following an event such as a major terrorist incident. "If ever our national security is threatened by advancing foreign forces, Pakistan will use all of its weapons - and I mean all of our weapons - to defend our country" one of the officials said. The comments came two weeks after Bipin Rawat, the newly appointed head of the Indian army, acknowledged the existence of "cold start"
The cold-start strategy is designed to enable an instant response to crisis including attacks by militants launched from Pakistani soil, and would mean Indian troops entering Pakistan and occupying positions along the border before Islamabad could prepare or the international community could intervene. The arms build-up in the region has raised the nuclear stakes.
According to a 2010 diplomatic cable from the then US ambassador in New Delhi released by WikiLeaks, the plan is designed to enable a rapid response to a crisis without threatening the survival of the Pakistani state - or triggering a nuclear response. Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have remained high since last September's attack on the Indian army base at Uri in Kashmir, which killed 19 soldiers.

India responded with what it called "surgical strikes" across the de facto border with Pakistan. Since then there have been more minor assaults. India's National Investigation Agency on Thursday said the militant Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba was to blame for the Uri attack.
This month, meanwhile, Pakistan carried out its first test of a nuclearcapable missile from a submarine. Uri attack has refocussed Indian attention on how it responds to terror attacks that it believes originate from Paljistan, such as those in Mumbai in 2008 and at the Indian parliament in 2001 .

While India has never before acknowledged the cold-start retaliation doctrine, Pakistan has used rumours of its existence to justify keeping its defences high on the Indian border, even as its foreign partners have urged it to redeploy troops to fight lslamists elsewhere. India refrains from nuclear attacks as not only will it lead to irreparable destruction but also be against india's theory of 'judicious use' of nuclear weapons validated through several treaties signed by it,

"It is understandable in the wake of the surgical strikes that the Modi government would want to signal to Pakistan that all options are on the table in the event of another terror attack within India," said Walter Ladvig, a lecturer in international relations at King's College, London. "However, reviving cold start - if that is what has happened certainly escalates the rhetoric, and may raise unrealistic expectations domestically about India's ability to respond to a new terror attack"

Mahmud Durrani, a former national security adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, said: "Pakistan already fears a rapid build-up of India's conventional weapons. The danger is that with such wamings [of cold start], the escalatory ladder of going from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons for Pakistan will be shortened. "Western diplomats in Islamabad, however, doubt whether India would use the cold-start plan.

"Right now, its more psychological," said one. "But that's not to say that we shouldn't worry about this situation. India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons. Going by the books, the two nuclear states cannot afford a war, but there is always uncertainty."

Question:

India is well equipped with the nuclear weapons but it did not devise a strong plan which could have triggered a nuclear response?

 

Option 1: India can't use its own nuclear weapons in case Pakistan does attack.

 

Option 2: The statement is incorrect as India is not afraid of the nuclear power of Pakistan
 

Option 3: A nuclear war will be catastrophic to both countries and will also lead to the breach of several global nuclear agreements signed by India.
 

Option 4: India is not fully prepared to counter the nuclear attack of Pakistan

Team Careers360 2nd Jan, 2024