New Delhi: The claim by Dr A.Q. Khan, father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, that it has the capability to hit New Delhi in five minutes from Kahuta was on Sunday deplored by India’s strategic defence community which said that India has the capability to hit entire Pakistan but nuclear weapons were not weapons of war but only meant for deterrence.
“It is a very immature statement. Nuclear missiles are not weapons of war but weapons of deterrence,” said former Army chief Gen N.C. Vij, director of think tank Vivekananda International Foundation. He added that India, too, has the ability to hit entire Pakistan but does not talk about such things.
Dr Khan, while addressing a gathering in Islamabad on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the first nuclear tests carried out under his supervision in 1998, had said that Pakistan has the ability to target the Indian capital from Kahuta near Rawalpindi in five minutes. Brig. (retd) Gurmeet Kanwal, a Distinguished Fellow at the state-run Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said Dr Khan is known for his “exaggerated claims”.
“Nuclear weapons are meant for deterrence and Pakistan will only use it under severe provocation. Even if we assume that out of the blue the Pakistani Army chief orders for a nuclear strike tomorrow, given the peace time alertness, it will take them at least six hours before they are able to launch,” he said.
Khan remark for publicity
Air Vice-Marshal (retd) Manmohan Bahadur, a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies said, “It is just a publicity-seeking statement” and “one must not be taken in by the brinkmanship displayed by nuclear proliferator.”
He said the “Pakistani leadership is rational not to think of nuclear missiles as weapons of war. Khan just wants to make his importance felt by making such statements.”
Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhaskar, Director of Society for Policy Studies, said Dr Khan’s “penchant to make dramatic announcements" and stay in the limelight is well-known. “The five-minute launch time for a missile launched from Pakistan to reach Delhi is actually old hat.”
