A senior Pakistani adviser on nuclear weapons has accused India of sponsoring terrorism by allegedly supporting militant groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Retired Lieutenant General Mazhar Jamil, an adviser to Pakistan’s National Command Authority (NCA), accused India of using terrorism as a policy tool and pursuing what he described as the publicly stated Doval doctrine to destabilise Pakistan.
Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London on October 13, Jamil cited India’s support for the Mukti Bahini in 1971, the LTTE during the 1980s and the operation of six consulates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border during the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 as purported evidence of India's past involvement in supporting terrorism.
Jamil delivered the keynote address at a Track 1.5 workshop on nuclear deterrence and strategic stability in South Asia. His speech included several allegations and insinuations, including a claim that India had deployed dual-capable BrahMos missiles during Operation Sindoor. Such missiles could theoretically carry either nuclear or conventional warheads. However, the BrahMos is equipped only with conventional warheads and is not part of India's Strategic Forces Command.
Jamil, who served as director-general of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division (SPD) from 2015 to 2017, accused India of bringing South Asia close to a nuclear catastrophe during Operation Sindoor last year. He claimed that Pakistan's strategic restraint alone had prevented the situation from escalating further.
His address appeared aimed at portraying the Indian subcontinent as a potential global nuclear flashpoint, encouraging international intervention in the region and seeking the withdrawal of India's exemption under the Non-Proliferation Treaty framework. The waiver allows New Delhi to purchase nuclear fuel and reactors without signing the NPT.
Jamil also referred to recent assessments by Swedish think tank SIPRI to suggest that India was moving towards a first-strike capability by deploying nuclear missiles launched from submarines. He claimed India had equipped some of its nuclear warheads for use with submarine-launched ballistic missiles and had conducted sea-based deterrence patrols, arguing that these activities increased the risk of misperceptions and miscalculations.
India's publicly released draft nuclear doctrine of 1999 rules out a nuclear first strike and emphasises credible minimum nuclear deterrence and retaliation only, principles associated with its No First Use (NFU) policy.
Jamil dismissed India's NFU commitment as a diplomatic manoeuvre intended to earn international goodwill. He also cited former National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, whom he described as an architect of India's nuclear policy, claiming Menon had acknowledged that India's nuclear doctrine was flexible enough to accommodate first-strike options.
Menon, however, did not draft India's nuclear policy. In a 2017 book, he discussed first-strike options, which are distinct from first use, the latter being prohibited under India's stated nuclear doctrine. Menon explained the phrase “massive retaliation” in India's draft nuclear doctrine as potentially encompassing a disarming first strike against Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if Pakistan used tactical nuclear weapons.
Jamil also described the accidental launch of a BrahMos missile by the Indian Air Force in March 2022 as an intentional attack on Pakistan. The missile was accidentally fired during a drill and landed in Pakistan's Khanewal district in Punjab province.
He avoided directly answering questions about whether Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's partners under the Makkah Joint Defence Pact, would support Islamabad in a conflict with India. Instead, he characterised the agreement as purely defensive.
Notably, Pakistan's National Command Authority, of which Jamil is an adviser, is chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The NCA was the country's highest authority overseeing nuclear weapons until November last year, when Pakistan established the National Strategic Command and placed all nuclear weapons under the operational control of Field Marshal Asim Munir. This development made Pakistan the only nuclear-armed state to place its strategic weapons under military control.
