Pakistan Owns Up Army Chief Asim Munir’s ‘Dumper Truck vs Mercedes’ Remark Against India

Islamabad has confirmed that Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, compared his country to a “dumper truck full of gravel” and India to a “shining Mercedes” during his recent remarks in the United States, a crude analogy that has drawn sharp reactions in New Delhi.

“India is a shining Mercedes. We are a dumper truck full of gravel. If we collide, you know the impact on Mercedes. Our Field Marshal Munir says,” Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters, defending the statement.

Munir had originally made the comparison during a black-tie dinner in Tampa, Florida, where he also issued stark nuclear threats against India. “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” he warned, according to accounts cited by ThePrint.

He further declared that if India proceeded with dam-building under the disputed Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan would “destroy it with 10 missiles.”

India’s Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the nuclear rhetoric as “Pakistan’s stock-in-trade,” saying the international community could see “the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks.” New Delhi added that the comments only reinforced doubts about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear command, given the military’s ties to terrorist groups.

“It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country,” the Indian statement noted, a clear reference to the United States.

The fresh confirmation from Pakistan’s political leadership signals that Munir’s provocative remarks, once reported second-hand from attendees, are being owned publicly, even as they escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.