Pakistan hints its nuclear threat was real

Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, said yesterday he had been ready to use "unconventional weapons" against India in the confrontation between the two countries earlier this year.

His remarks were widely assumed to refer to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, which Western analysts say comprises as many as 48 warheads.

The comments were seen as an unexpected confirmation that the threat of a nuclear war between Pakistan and India in May and June had been real, and not – as some in the region argued – belligerent posturing.

Speaking to an audience of Pakistani Air Force veterans, the general said he "personally conveyed messages [to India] through every international leader who came to Pakistan that if Indian troops moved a single step across the international border they should not expect a conventional war from Pakistan."

Military officials moved to play down the remarks, apparently out of concern for Pakistan's international standing, battered by reports of arms dealings with North Korea and the activities of Islamist extremists on its soil.

Last night, General Rashid Quereshi, spokesman for the Pakistani army, said President Musharraf had not been referring to nuclear weapons, which he did not mention in the speech. He said General Musharraf was talking about the people of Pakistan, who would have worked with the army to counter the Indian forces, hundreds of thousands of whom were at the time massed in the border area.

India was dismissive of the Pakistani leader's comments. They were covered extensively on the popular Star TV news channel – but only after a lengthy report about the selection of the Indian World Cup cricket team.

General Sunderajan Padmanabhan, the head of the Indian army, sought to brush them off by arguing that Pakistan's nuclear capability had not acted as a deterrent. "We were absolutely ready to go to war. Our forces were well located," he said. Both sides mobilised their armies after an attack on India's parliament by gunmen.

Tensions were near breaking point throughout spring, fuelled by violence in Kashmir and the back-wash of the US-led war on Islamist "terror".

Troop numbers have been reduced, although relations between the countries – who have fought three wars since Partition in 1947 – remain brittle.

* In the first big test for Pakistan's return to democracy, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the Prime Minister, won a vote of confidence yesterday in parliament and pledged to try to improve relations with India.

Mr Jamali's challenge is to shake off the legacy of military rule and the exhausting effect of border conflicts with India, while conserving Pakistan's alliance with the US in the face of rising Islamic radicalism.

Mr Jamali, an ally of General Musharraf, became Prime Minister after elections in October and a vote in parliament in November. General Musharraf retains the power to override the legislature.