In February 2019, India and Pakistan came “close” to a “nuclear firestorm,” according to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s new biography.
In response to an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir, Delhi ordered strikes against militants on Pakistani soil.
Pakistan then announced that it had shot down two Indian military aircraft and detained a fighter pilot.
India and Pakistan claim sovereignty over all of Kashmir, but only control portions of the territory.
India has long accused Pakistan of supporting separatist militants in the Kashmir valley, an accusation Islamabad has consistently denied. Since independence from Britain and partition in 1947, the nuclear-armed neighbors have fought three wars. The exception was Kashmir.
In Never Give An Inch: Fighting for America I Love, Mr. Pompeo writes, “I do not believe the world appreciates how close India and Pakistan came to a nuclear conflict in February 2019.”
He comments, “The reality is, I don’t know the exact answer either; I only know it was too near.”
Mr. Pompeo says he will “never forget the night” he was in Hanoi for a conference “discussing nuclear weapons with the North Koreans” when “India and Pakistan began threatening each other over the decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir.”
According to Mr. Pompeo, the attack on Indian troops that resulted in the deaths of more than 40 soldiers was “an Islamist terrorist act… likely aided in part by Pakistan’s inadequate anti-terror measures.” In response, India conducted airstrikes within Pakistan. In a subsequent engagement, the Pakistanis shot down an Indian aircraft and took the Indian pilot hostage.
Mr. Pompeo stated that he was awakened in Hanoi to speak with an unnamed Indian “counterpart.”
“He assumed the Pakistanis had initiated preparations for a nuclear attack. He advised me that India was considering its escalation,” Mr. Pompeo adds.
I requested that he do nothing and give us a moment to figure things out.
Mr. Pompeo writes that he began collaborating with former National Security Adviser John Bolton at the “small secure communications facility in our hotel”
According to him, he contacted Pakistan’s then-army head General Qamar Javed Bajwa. With whom he had “engaged numerous times,” and relayed what the “Indians had told me.”
“He stated that it was untrue. As expected, he assumed the Indians were prepared to deploy their nuclear weapons. To persuade each side that the other was not preparing for nuclear war, required a few hours and the remarkable efforts of our teams on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad.
Mr. Pompeo argues that “no other nation would have done what we did that night to prevent a terrible catastrophe.”
India and Pakistan have not reacted to Mr. Pompeo’s assertions as of now.
The 2019 attack on Indian soldiers was claimed by the Pakistan-based organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and India threatened retaliation.
Since the 1971 war, India has not launched aerial attacks over the Line of Control (LoC) separating Indian and Pakistani territory. Pakistan branded India’s allegation that it had killed a significant number of militants “recklessly.”
