'If we're going down, we'll take half the world down': Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir

According to the report, using a metaphor, Munir told the audience: “India is shining Mercedes coming on a highway like Ferrari [sic], but we are a dump truck full of gravel. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?”

Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir has issued an extraordinary nuclear threat against India from the soil of the United States, telling a private audience in Tampa, Florida, “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us", according to a report by ThePrint.

Speaking at a black-tie dinner hosted by businessman Adnan Asad, honorary consul in Tampa, Munir also warned over the Indus Waters Treaty and threatened to destroy the Indian dams with missiles on the river.

“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, phir 10 missile sey faarigh kar dengey \[we will destroy it with 10 missiles],” he has been quoted as saying. “The Indus river is not the Indians’ family property. Humein missilon ki kami nahin hai, al-Hamdulillah \[we have no shortage of missiles, Praise be to God]," he added.

ThePrint reported that guests at the event were barred from carrying digital devices, and no text of the speech was circulated, hence, it reconstructed the address from participants’ recollections.

The evening began with a recitation of As-Saf verse 4 from the Quran, followed by Pakistan’s national anthem. Munir mocked India’s refusal to disclose details of its losses during the “Four-Day war,” saying, “The Indians should accept their losses… Sportsman spirit is a virtue.” He claimed to have “offered for an inventory of Pakistan’s losses to be made public, as long as India also conducted a similar exercise.”

According to the report, using a metaphor, he told the audience: “India is shining Mercedes coming on a highway like Ferrari \[sic], but we are a dump truck full of gravel. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?”

The army chief defended military involvement in Pakistan’s politics, saying, “They say war is too serious to be left to the Generals, but politics is also too serious to be left to the politicians.”

He also reportedly asked the diaspora to do more to support Pakistan, and said, “Kisi ki maa kaali ho sakti hai, aur kisi ki dharti-maa kaali ho sakti hai, par maa maa hoti hai \[someone’s mother might be dark-skinned, and the earth of someone’s motherland might be dark, but a mother is a mother].”

He argued Pakistan would be blessed because it is “one of only two states founded on the basis of the Kalimah,” the first being “the city-state of Medina… renamed Tayyiba.” The second, he said, was Pakistan, which “God would reward… with energy and natural resources.”

Commenting on diplomacy, Munir joked that Pakistan should give “masterclasses on balancing rival powers,” adding, “The real reason for our success is that we are not misers. If someone does good work, we praise and appreciate them. That is why we nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Prize.”

As per the report, this is the first time that nuclear threats have been issued from the soil of the US against a third country.

Munir, who came out of the shadows amid soaring tensions between India and Pakistan, further raked up the Indus Waters Treaty issue, which has been kept in “abeyance" by New Delhi after the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack, saying India’s decision could put 250 million people at risk of starvation.

Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir, who is visiting Washington for the second time since the four-day conflict with India, has met top US political and military leaders, the army said on Sunday.

Munir held talks with US Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Dan Caine and invited him to visit Pakistan, according to a statement from Pakistan’s military wing. They discussed matters of “mutual professional interest," it said.

Earlier, he was hosted to a private lunch at the White House by US President Donald Trump.

On several occasions, Munir has blamed India without any evidence for the recent tensions in the region in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

After the Pahalgam attack, the diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan downgraded with New Delhi announcing several punitive measures, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, cutting Islamabad Mission strength and expulsion of its military attaches.