October , 2001
New Delhi, October 11: India apprehends that Pakistan could go ahead and use nuclear weapons in case of a heightened conventional war as it has never given an assurance of "no first use", Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah has said.
"Why is Pakistan not ready to declare no first use of the nuclear weapons when India has already announced the same," Abdullah told a TV channel.
He said Islamabad might opt for a nuclear strike if it found itself in a weak position in a conventional warfare.
Abdullah said, "we have a history that we have never waged any war. Any way even after fighting and winning three wars with Pakistan, the problem of Kashmir has not been solved".
Asked about the rhetoric on waging a war against Pakistan by Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and his father Farooq Abdullah, he said, "war is not the only solution to end the cross border terrorism. We can invoke resolution 1373 of the United Nations by which we can stop the funding of these militant groups besides pressurising Pakistan to stop giving diplomatic and moral support to these terrorists".
The minister said India would ask the international coalition against terrorism to exert pressure on Pakistan to stop these training camps. "If these steps are taken then the militant camps will automatically close down," he said.
Asked whether he was in favour of war, the minister said "no one can be in favour of war but even Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had written to the US President George Bush that he could not ignore the public opinion for long".
Asked whether this implied that people were in favour of war, Abdullah said "not war exactly, but we have been asked several times as to why we never replied to the provocations from Pakistan".
However, he said war was never decided by consensus. "Circumstances are created which force a country to go to war," the Minister said.
About Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's statement that Kashmir was the only issue between the two countries, Abdullah said "this is absolutely wrong as we have several other issues to settle between us".
Taking a dig at Hurriyat Conference and other separatist leaders in the state, Abdullah said "let people come out in a large number to cast their ballots. I am sure that it will explode the myth of the amalgam leadership representing the aspirations of people of the state".
The minister said the aspirations of the people of the state had been thwarted by the presence of so many guns. "The wishes are thwarted from across the border and Pakistan continues to send in more armed mercenaries into the state to boost their campaign," he added.
He cited the example of the hartal [strike] call in the Kashmir Valley given by militant groups and opposed by Hurriyat group and said "this gave a big slap on the face of Hurriyat Conference and exposed them that they were nothing without the support of militants".
To a question about the unrest in the state, Abdullah said, "there are several factors to it. Jailing of legitimate chief minister, throwing out of power an elected government and moreover the Rajiv Gandhi-Farooq Abdullah accord of 1987".
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