Former Pakistani diplomat Abdul Basit is facing flak at home for threatening attacks on Indian cities in response to a potential US strike, with veteran Pakistan journalists and intelligentsia terming him remarks as “idiotic nonsense” which are not based in reality.
How Pakistani netizens responded to Basit’s remarks?
In a post on X, senior Pakistani journalist Bilal Ghauri flayed Abdul Basit for his remarks, calling his statement as a “suicide attack” on Pakistan’s diplomatic policy.
“If America attacks Pakistan, we cannot reach America, we cannot target Israel, so we must launch an attack on India without thinking or understanding—to target New Delhi and Mumbai. How utterly irresponsible is this statement? Can any ambassador, even if retired, utter such idiotic nonsense?” Ghauri asked.
He said the former envoy doesn’t realise that Pakistani missiles can reach Israel, “and the second point is: in such a scenario, why would we attack India at all? This statement is nothing short of a suicide attack on Pakistan’s diplomatic policy.”
What did Abdul Basit say?
Earlier, former ambassador Abdul Basit said that India will be the only target left for Pakistan to attack if the United States strikes the country. “”Iran collapses and Israel moves into our neighborhood. A situation arises that the US attempts to destroy our nuclear capabilities,” Basit said during an interview with a news channel.
“What will Pakistan do? If America is not within our nuclear range, we cannot reach their bases in regional areas. We cannot even attack Israel, then India will be our option,” the former envoy said.
Basit, who also served as Pakistan’s High-Commissioner to India, said Pakistan “will have to target” Indian cities including Delhi and Mumbai. “We will not let up because we will have no other option, and have to respond in that manner,” he said, adding that consequences of such an attack on India can be dealt with later.
‘Spent 30 years in mental institution, not foreign office’
However, Pakistani netizens tore through Basit for his remarks, terming the statement as as frivolous and low-level.
“Listening to the conversations of many former Pakistani ambassadors, it seems that they didn’t spend thirty years in the Foreign Office but rather in some mental health recovery center, and returned without having recovered,” journalist and activist Zaigham Khan said in a post on X.
