India slammed Pakistan army chief Asim Munir for his nuclear sabre-rattling calling it Pakistan’s stock-in-trade, while also venting its disappointment in an official statement with the US where Munir was reported to have again raised the bogey of nuclear war with India.Accusing the Pakistan military of working in tandem with terrorist groups, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it’s regrettable that his remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country.Munir was quoted by a news portal as saying in Florida, during his second visit to the US since Op Sindoor, that Pakistan is a nuclear nation and “if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us”. India had said after the “ceasefire” with Pakistan in May that it has established a new normal in ties with Islamabad in which it would not under any circumstances give in to nuclear blackmail.Responding to Munir, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security. “The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” said the official.Government sources recalled how Pakistan has multiple times stated its ‘First Use Policy’ of nuclear weapons against India, issued threats of nuclear attack and also how Pakistan obtained nuclear weapon by theft of technology from abroad (the Netherlands) using dubious means. A Pakistan minister said in April this year, “Pakistan’s arsenal – including Ghori, Shaheen, and Ghaznavi missiles along with 130 nuclear warheads – have been kept only for India”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia too said in May Pakistan will use the full spectrum of power, both conventional and nuclear, against India.An official source said that given Pakistan’s use of terrorism as a state policy and the influence of extremist ideologies in its government and army, the possibility of nuclear weapons falling in wrong hands in Pakistan remains a real risk not only for India but for the entire global community. He recalled LeT chief Hafiz Saeed’s remarks in 2016 that “not only India (and Israel) but western nations are also within the reach of Pakistan’s nuclear missiles”.According to government sources, Pakistan also describes the situation with India as a “nuclear flashpoint” even though India has never issued such threats, clearly indicating that Pakistan holds the nefarious intentions of exercising the nuclear option.“These patterns demonstrate that the real instability in the Indian subcontinent/South Asia comes from a military that has its hand on the nuclear button rather than a civilian authority, leading to a military chief making such claims. Pakistan remains a source of perpetual instability in South Asia by fuelling terrorism and issuing nuclear threats,’ said a source.“The army which is led by a religious fanatic, having the control of the nuclear button, has usurped the control and undermines the authority of the civilian government. The principles of checks and balances have been diluted leading to unpredictability and uncertainty,” he added.