‘During Kargil, Pak army readied a nuclear missile’

Pakistan’s army had prepared a nuclear-tipped missile to fight back a possible Indian attack during the Kargil crisis and the then US President, Bill Clinton, had conveyed this news to the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was taken ‘‘aback’’ by the revelation, claims a book by Pakistani author and The Indian Express columnist Husain Haqqani.

At the July 4, 1999 meeting between Clinton and Sharif, the US President had asked the Pakistani leader if he knew how advanced the threat of nuclear war really was. ‘‘Did Sharif know his military was preparing their nuclear-tipped missiles? Sharif seemed taken aback and said only that India was probably doing the same,’’ the book said, according to the daily, Dawn. In the book Pakistan Between Mosque and Military by Haqqani, Bruce Riedel, Special Assistant to President Clinton, who was present at the meeting, is quoted as saying that ‘‘the President reminded Sharif how close the US and Soviet Union had come to a nuclear conflict in 1962 over Cuba. ‘‘Did Sharif realize that if even one bomb was dropped…Sharif finished his sentence and said it would be a catastrophe,’’ Haqqani’s book, to be published in the US by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

Riedel said Sharif ‘‘wanted desperately’’ to find a solution that would allow Pakistan to withdraw from Kargil ‘‘with some cover’’.

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‘‘Was that what Sharif wanted, Clinton asked? Did Sharif order Pakistani nuclear missile force to prepare for action? Did he realize how crazy that was? You have put me in the middle today, set the US to fail and I won’t let it happen. Pakistan is messing with nuclear war.’’

At the end of the meeting, Sharif agreed to announce a Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil.

— PTI