Pakistan summons its top nuclear body after launching offensive on India

Pakistan announced that it convened a meeting on Saturday of the high-level body responsible for its nuclear arsenal following the commencement of a military operation against India in the early hours, aiming at several bases including a missile storage facility in northern India.

The Indian army said after the attacks that Pakistan was continuing its “blatant escalation” with drone strikes and using other munitions along India’s western border, and that its “enemy designs” would be thwarted.

Regional police reported that five civilians lost their lives in the assaults in the Jammu area of Indian Kashmir. Diplomatic appeals for de-escalation, notably from the United States, grew stronger as the nuclear-armed rivals escalated their most intense conflict in thirty years.

Pakistan stated that prior to its offensive, India had launched missiles targeting three air bases, one of which was near the capital, Islamabad, while Pakistani air defenses managed to intercept the majority of them.

Pakistan’s military stated that the prime minister convened a meeting of the National Command Authority, a key group of civilian and military leaders responsible for decisions regarding its nuclear weapons.

Analysts and diplomats have long feared that conflict between the arch-rivals could escalate into the use of nuclear weapons, in one of the world’s most dangerous and most populated nuclear flashpoint regions.

Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said the escalation was a test for the international community.

“We would hate to see that (nuclear) threshold being breached,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir on Friday morning, according to the U.S. State Department.

“He continued to urge both parties to find ways to de-escalate and offered U.S. assistance in starting constructive talks in order to avoid future conflicts,” said State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

Locked in a longstanding dispute over Kashmir, the two countries have engaged in daily clashes since Wednesday when India launched strikes inside Pakistan on what it called “terrorist infrastructure”. Pakistan vowed to retaliate.

The meeting of the National Command Authority signalled an alarming escalation, analysts said.

“It is a soft nuclear signal but also well in line with Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine of first use and realistically reflective of where we are on the escalation ladder – which is pretty high up, after multiple duels between both sides, and also lacking in precedent,” said Asfandyar Mir, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the Stimson Center.