I am afraid not many indians and pakistanis,
mostly villagers, understand the modern concept of
nuclear warfare. In their mind, nuclear war would mean dropping an
indian nuke at Islamabad, then somewhere in Khaltar
Peak, a silo would open and launch a nuke at Delhi.
Everyone not in the affected areas would sit down and have tea,
and await diplomatic to end the bombings.
Unfortunately, modern nuclear warfare would mean simultaneous
launch of nuclear armed missiles into the enemy territories. It
would also mean the same would be done when the enemy realizes
nukes had been launched.
For example, when the Indian PM press the button to fire the
long range nuke missiles, that fire control button launches every
nuke missile in the country arsenal, individually set with
pre-programmed target co-ordinates to hit every population centre,
province and military installation in Pakistan.
Similarly, the Pakistan PM too have such fire control systems,
and upon detection of nuke launches within seconds from
India, he too depress the button to end it all.
Pakistan and India have no anti missile shield such as US, Japan
and some european nations.
Within minutes, the landmasses formerly known as Pakistan and
India will cease to exist. Every building flattened, tree burnt and
living beings vapourised. All within hours.
By any miracle that there are survivors, they will face
radiation and a whole host of medical problems, if they can survive
drinking contaminated water and eating rotting corpses.
No other human being outside will dare or even contemplate
humanitarian actions there, for that landmass will be radioactive
for years.
And if the winds are unmerciful, clouds of radioactive isotopes
will drift to neighbouring countries, contaminating their food and
water supplies.
The option to go nuke will be a final desperate move. In the
initial stages of war, air and infantry operations will suffice as
posturing. But as the casualties mount, the losing side will find
no more reason to continue on, and would take the chance to wipeout
the enemy once and for all.
This is only a scenario of the potential Indo-Pakistan conflict
to come. We may not have been able to avert the Israeli-Gaza
clash, but we can still avert the looming disaster in the indian
subcontinent.
India is only asking for the terrorist planners implicated in
the Mumbai attacks from Pakistan. These are only criminals. No
religion would associate with such killers, thus we must discuss
with our friends and relatives of different faiths, to treat those
wanted men as criminals, and not as religious figures for
persecution.
They in turn must reach out to others, who may be able to
influence events in Islamic Pakistan, not to treat it as any form
of religious persecution, but extradiation for murder crimes and
must accept due process of the law.
The looming conflict between Pakistan and India may yet be
averted.