NSA Doval Called ISI Chief At The Height Of India-Pakistan Crisis, Told Him India Was Ready To Escalate: Report

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval called the chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at the height of the recent India-Pakistan crisis in the aftermath of the Balakot airstrike and told him that India was ready to escalate, a Reuters report says, adding that New Delhi ‘threatened’ to launch missiles.

According to the agency’s report, which cites a Pakistani government minister and a Western diplomat in Islamabad, India told Pakistan that it would unleash six missiles on targets inside Pakistan. In response, Pakistan is said to have conveyed that it will respond with three times the same number.

“We said if you will fire one missile, we will fire three. Whatever India will do, we will respond three times to that,” a Pakistani minister is quoted as saying.

Doval, the report says, told ISI chief Asim Munir that India’s fight was against the terror outfits based in Pakistan and that New Delhi was ready to escalate the crisis. The agency claims that this information was provided to it by an Indian government source and a Western diplomat who knew about the call.

“Doval told Munir that India’s fight was with the militant groups that freely operated from Pakistani soil and it was prepared to escalate, said the government source”, the Reuters report says, citing sources to add that Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies were communicating with each other throughout the crisis.