Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir told a Saudi Arabian delegation that visited Islamabad amid hostilities with India in May that Pakistan is like a “dumper truck full of stones” that can stymie India, according to Pakistani interior minister Mohsin Naqvi.
The remarks, in which Munir described India as a “shining Mercedes” that couldn’t survive a collision with a dumper truck, were similar to comments that he reportedly made at an interaction with the Pakistani diaspora in Florida in the US earlier this month.
Naqvi, who was addressing a seminar in Lahore on Sunday, said Munir made the remarks after the Saudi delegation suggested that Pakistan should reach an understanding with India to end the hostilities. Naqvi’s speech was aired by Pakistani news channels and reported by the state-run APP news agency.
“A delegation of the Saudi government came to Pakistan when this war was on. The prime minister, the field marshal, the deputy prime minister, and I were at the meeting [with the Saudi delegation],” Naqvi said, referring to Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar.
“Since [the Saudi delegation] had come just after visiting India and they had been updated [by the Indian side], and, as representatives of a friendly country, they were telling us that we should reach an understanding for peace. They also said some things about the Indian side,” Naqvi said.
{{/usCountry}}“Since [the Saudi delegation] had come just after visiting India and they had been updated [by the Indian side], and, as representatives of a friendly country, they were telling us that we should reach an understanding for peace. They also said some things about the Indian side,” Naqvi said.
{{/usCountry}}“The field marshal also repeated this story at a presser. He told the Saudi delegation that…India is like a shining Mercedes, but we are like a dumper truck full of stones and other things. So you can imagine what will happen to the Mercedes when these two collide,” he said. “When he told this story, [the Saudi delegation] became quiet and didn’t say anything more.”
Naqvi didn’t give details, though he was apparently referring to a Saudi delegation led by deputy foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir that made unscheduled visits to India and Pakistan on May 8-9. At the time, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement that the visit was “part of the Kingdom’s efforts towards de-escalation, ending ongoing military confrontations, and resolving all disputes through dialogue and diplomatic channels”.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan with missiles and long-range weapons in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 civilians. This triggered four days of hostilities that ended after the two sides reached an understanding on ending military actions on May 10.
This wasn’t the first instance of Saudi Arabia, which has built up close and strategic relations with India over the past decade and has long-standing ties with Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership, engaging the South Asian neighbours amid escalating tensions. The Saudi leadership also sought to mediate during the tensions caused by the Pulwama suicide attack in February 2019 that killed 40 Indian troops and brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Earlier this month, Munir reportedly made similar remarks while speaking at a dinner for the Pakistani diaspora in Tampa, Florida. Munir, who was on his second visit to the US in as many months, reportedly said Pakistan could use its nuclear weapons to take down India and “half the world” in the event of an existential threat in any future conflict with India.
He reportedly said Pakistan could target any dams built by India on cross-border rivers after suspending the Indus Waters Treaty with its missiles. He also reportedly said India is like a “shining Mercedes” and Pakistan “a dumper truck full of gravel”. He added, “If the truck hits the car, who will be the loser?”
During his speech on Sunday on the theme of “Global impacts of Pakistan’s military and diplomatic victories over India”, Naqvi repeated Islamabad’s unsubstantiated claims of downing six Indian aircraft during the hostilities in May and claimed Pakistani intelligence agencies had advance information about “India’s war planning and their aircraft taking off”.
India has acknowledged losses of an unspecified number of combat aircraft and said its armed forces shot down five Pakistani combat jets and a large surveillance aircraft, which was brought down by a missile at a range of more than 300 km.