Threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan

India and Pakistan dangerously came close to a nuclear war on many occasions. India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974. Pakistan conducted tit for tat nuclear tests in response to Indian nuclear tests in 1998.
Former US President Bill Clinton said that “the most dangerous place in the world today, I think you could argue, is the Indian subcontinent and the line of control in Kashmir”. President Clinton’s description of subcontinent was due to the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan.
US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage said, “there are a lot of other dangerous parts in the world. India and Pakistan over Kashmir comes to mind” Armitage also described Kashmir as “most dangerous place in the world” during his speech in Sydney in 2003. India and Pakistan hold hundreds of nuclear war heads according to the Federation of American Scientists. These two countries fought three wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
Threat of nuclear war in 1986
Indian Army Chief, General Krishnaswami Sundarji, ordered a large scale military exercise codenamed Brasstacks in December 1986. This was biggest exercise since the World War II and larger than any NATO exercise. General Sundarji also integrated tactical nuclear weapons into day-to-day manoeuvring of troops.
Commander Western Command, Lieutenant General P.N. Hoon, wrote in his memories that “Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up a situation for a fourth war with Pakistan. And, what is even more shocking is that the Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, was not aware of these plans.”
Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan told an Indian freelance reporter that, “Nobody can undo Pakistan, or take us for granted … And let me be clear that we shall use the bomb if our existence is threatened” during an interview in Islamabad in January of 1987.
During the height of nuclear crisis “General Zia flew to an Indian-Pakistani cricket match in India, where he sat beside Rajiv Gandhi and, it is alleged, at one point leaned over and said, ‘If your forces cross our border by an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities.’ Whether or not he spoke those words, India soon withdrew its army …” according to The Atlantic magazine.
General Sundarji was also a master mind behind operations at Sumdorong Chu in 1986, known as Operation Falcon. This operation started skirmishes between Indian and Chinese forces leading to a war like situation.
Threat of nuclear war in 1990
Pulitzer Prize winner American investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh claimed that India and Pakistan were ready to fight a nuclear war during rapidly escalating insurgency in Kashmir in 1990.
Deputy Director of the C.I.A., Richard J. Kerr told Hersh, “It was the most dangerous nuclear situation we have ever faced since I’ve been in the U.S. government. It may be as close as we’ve come to a nuclear exchange. It was far more frightening than the Cuban missile crisis.”
President George Bush's deputy national security adviser in 1990 Robert Gates, also told Hersh that “Pakistan and India seemed to be caught in a cycle that they couldn't break out of. I was convinced that if a war started, it would be nuclear”.
Threat of nuclear war in 1999
President Clinton prevented a nuclear war between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir during Kargil crisis according to former US Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott. He claims in his book “Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb” that India and Pakistan came very close to a nuclear war in 1999 during Kargil crisis.
US national security adviser Sandy Berger told President Clinton that he could be heading into “the single most important meeting with a foreign leader of his entire presidency” according to Strobe Talbott. Sandy Berger made these comments before President Clinton went into meeting with Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif in 1999 during Kargil crisis.
Threat of nuclear war in 2001-02
India claimed that attacks on its parliament in 2001 were carried out by Pakistan based militants who were fighting against India in Kashmir.
Former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice wrote that “by December 27 the reports were confirmed: India had, indeed moved nuclear-capable missiles to the border. Colin called Jaswant Singh, the Indian Minister of External Affairs, and asked that the two countries sit down and talk. The suggestion was flatly rejected”. She revealed this in her book, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.
Indian Army Chief Gen. S. Padmanabhan warned Pakistan against contemplating a nuclear strike against India on 11 January 2002. US Ambassador Robert Blackwill ordered nonessential embassy staff to leave India on May 30, 2002 due to the “possibility of war and of Pakistani use of a nuclear weapon against New Delhi” according to the Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, Henry D. Sokolski.
In response to Indian nuclear deployment a Pakistani general said, “it takes us eight seconds to get the missiles over” in a conversation with Director of Communications and Strategy for prime minister Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell.
This is an extract from Campbell’s diary. He wrote, “DM had a paper, making clear our belief that the Pakistanis would 'go nuclear' and if they did, that they wouldn't be averse to unleashing them on a big scale. TB was genuinely alarmed by it and said to David 'They wouldn't really be prepared to go for nuclear weapons over Kashmir would they?' DM said the problem was there wasn't a clear understanding of strategy and so situations tended to develop and escalate quickly, and you couldn't really rule anything out.”
Threat of nuclear war in 2008
Once again India accused that Lashkar-e-Taiba -a militant group which was fighting against India in Kashmir, was behind the Mumbai attacks in 2008. India and Pakistan started deploying troops on the disputed border of Kashmir after Mumbai attacks.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a second meeting of the Nuclear Command Authority to “discuss all the options available to India” after Mumbai attacks. On 29 December 2008, the leaders of the Indian and Pakistani armies spoke over their red telephone, in order to avert an accidental nuclear war.
British parliamentarian, David Ward described the importance of Kashmir issue during a debate on the political and humanitarian situation in Kashmir in House of Commons in 2014. Ward said, “Seeking a final resolution to the Kashmir question is hugely important for world peace … We only have to think back to December 2001 when … maps were drawn up of where a potential nuclear strike might occur, or November 2008 and the atrocious Mumbai attack, to realise that the longer the issue remains unresolved, the more dangerous it becomes in this already dangerous world.”
The US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson wrote in 2009 “the escalation of Indo-Pak tensions following the Mumbai attacks demonstrated to the Pakistanis that the threat from India still exists” according to leaked diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.
Pakistan Army Chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did not support President Asif Ali Zardari's statement that Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons first against India according to another US diplomatic cable by released by WikiLeaks.
See also
*Kashmir
*All Parties Hurriyat Conference
*Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir

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