'Khawaja Asif has gone crazy': Ex-foreign secretary blasts Pak Minister for his 'no country will survive' threat

India's former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal tore into Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday, saying he had "gone off his rocker" after a series of provocative statements from Islamabad.

"He (Khawaja Asif) has gone off his rocker. If Pakistan’s existence is threatened the Pakistan defence minister will destroy the world, presumably China even, besides the US, Russia, Europe," Sibal said in a sharply worded response to Asif's warning of a potential nuclear response.

Asif, in an interview with Samaa TV, declared, "If Modi applies the same mentality that Netanyahu is using, then Pakistan will respond in such a way that history will remember that a country responded like this. If Pakistan's existence is threatened...if any kind of action is taken against us, then no one will survive."

The remark was widely seen as a veiled nuclear threat amid rising tensions following the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. 

"There are reports that India may strike at any point along the LoC… New Delhi will be given a befitting reply,” Asif said at a press briefing in Islamabad on Monday. Not just that, Asif earlier warned that any structure built by India to divert water under the Indus Waters Treaty would be treated as an act of war. 

Hours after the Pahalgam attack, India suspended the treaty, which supplies water to nearly 80% of Pakistan's agricultural land. "That will be aggression against Pakistan...even if they (India) made an architectural attempt of this kind, then Pakistan will destroy that structure,” Asif said in an interview. 

The India-Pakistan standoff has triggered global concern. US political scientist John Mearsheimer warned that the situation could escalate into a full-scale war. "This is a very dangerous situation. These are two nuclear-armed countries that have a history of fighting wars. There is real potential for a real war and there is real potential for nuclear use,” Mearsheimer told The Spectator.