Pakistan’s firebrand military ruler at one point of time though using the option of nukes against India, a Japanese daily ‘Mainichi Shimbun’ has claimed.

The news paper claimed that Gen Pervez Musharraf had mulled the use of nuclear weapons against India amid tensions following the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, but decided against doing so out of fear of retaliation, according to a media report.

Musharraf, who seemed quite open to seeking solutions to various issues with arch rival India, also recalled that he had many sleepless nights, asking himself whether he would or could deploy nuclear weapons.

The former Pakistan president disclosed that amid tensions between India and Pakistan following the 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, he contemplated the use of nuclear weapons, but decided against doing so out of fear of retaliation.

When tensions were high in 2002, there was a “danger when (the) nuclear threshold could have been crossed,” the paper quoted Musharraf as saying.

At the time, Musharraf had publicly said that he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Musharraf also said, however, that at the time, neither India nor Pakistan had nuclear warheads on their missiles, so it would have taken one to two days to make them launch-ready.

Asked whether he had ordered that missiles be equipped with nuclear warheads and put into firing position, he said, “We didn’t do that and we don’t think India also did that, thank God” — pointing, perhaps, to a fear of retaliation, the paper reported.

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