Pakistan's Nuclear Backtrack Weeks After "Full Spectrum" Threat To India | Read

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the country's nuclear programme is intended strictly for "peaceful purposes and self-defence", drawing a contrast to earlier statements by senior Pakistani officials who had openly threatened nuclear retaliation in the event of conflict with India.

Mr Sharif's remarks, delivered on Saturday while addressing a group of Pakistani students, come less than two months after a senior Pakistani diplomat explicitly warned of using "the full spectrum of power, both conventional and nuclear" in the context of rising tensions with New Delhi. The Pakistani Prime Minister's attempt to tone down nuclear escalation marks a shift following heightened tensions due to Operation Sindoor, a military response by India to the April 22 terror attack Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which killed 26 people.