 "Sharif calls meet of nuclear command body after Pak suffers heavy damage in Indian retaliation")
In yet another escalation amid across-the-spectrum attacks on India, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of National Command Authority (NCA) on Saturday, according to Reuters.
The NCA is Pakistan’s top decision-making body on the country’s nuclear weapons.
The NCA meeting comes after Pakistan launched ‘Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos’ on Friday night in response to India’s military action against terrorists.
**Follow our complete coverage of India-Pakistan conflict here**Hours after Reuters reported about the meeting, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that no such meeting was scheduled.
In an interview with ARY TV, Asif said that “no meeting has happened of the National Command Authority nor is any such meeting scheduled”.
Asif further said, “This thing that you have spoken about (nuclear option) is present, but let’s not talk about it - we should treat it as a very distant possibility, we shouldn’t even discuss it in the immediate context. Before we get to that point, I think temperatures will come down.”
Pakistan has often threatened India with nuclear weapons and have used its nucelear arsenal as a tool to blackmail the world. In the ongoing conflict as well, Pakistani politicians have invoked nuclear weapons.
Pakistan escalated the ongoing conflict on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday by attacking India with drones, missiles, and fighter planes. Pakistan launched at least one ballistic missile that is understood to have been launched at Delhi. It was intercepted over Sirsa in Haryana.
India responded to Pakistan’s aggression and struck at least three airbases . India struck the Nur Khan airbase at Rawalpindi’s Chaklala, Murid airbase in Chakwal district of Punjab, and Shorkot airbase in Punjab’s Jhang. The Indian action targeted fighter planes, transporters, and drone launchpads at these bases.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe latest attack came after Pakistan launched 300-400 drones at targets across northern and Western India — all the way from Ladakh to Gujarat. Most of these drones have been intercepted, but artillery shelling and drones have caused damage at various places, such as in Jammu region.
(The story has been updated with Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks about the meeting.)
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