Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif (archive photo)
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Saturday that Islamabad will respond with a strike on Kolkata in the event of any “misadventure” by India. “If India tries another false flag operation, then, God willing, we will take it to Kolkata,” Asif told reporters in his hometown of Sialkot. He also claimed that New Delhi may be planning a “false flag operation”, claiming that India could stage an incident using its own Pakistani agents or detainees and blame Islamabad, although he did not provide any evidence to support this assertion. Earlier this week, Asif described Pakistan’s response to any Indian attack as “swift, measured and decisive”, in response to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s warning that any “misadventure” by Pakistan in the future would call for “unprecedented and decisive” action. Tensions between the two countries remain high following the Pahalgam attack on April 22 last year, in which Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 civilians – most of them tourists. The incident sparked a short but intense military confrontation from May 7 to 10. Hostilities subsided after Islamabad sought a ceasefire, which New Delhi accepted while keeping Operation Sindoor – its military response targeting terror groups based in Pakistan – on pause.
New Delhi also stressed that it would not distinguish between terrorist groups and the Pakistani military leadership.In August 2025, the Pakistani military issued a similar warning, stating that it would strike deep into India from the eastern front. Kolkata – one of the country’s largest cities and a former national capital – is the capital of West Bengal, an eastern state. Asif’s latest comments came days after former Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit suggested that Islamabad should target major Indian cities like Mumbai and Delhi if its nuclear arsenal is threatened by the United States. He said that as long as the United States remained beyond Pakistan’s nuclear reach, India would become the “next best option.” “If anyone looks at us with evil eyes, we will strike Mumbai and New Delhi without hesitation,” Basit added.(with PTI inputs)
