A full-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan could kill up to twelve million people immediately and cause up to seven million non-fatal casualties, according to a recent assessment by the Pentagon . Even a “limited war”, with only a small number of warheads being detonated, would have a cataclysmic effect. Individual nuclear warheads are thought to be capable of producing a 20 kiloton blast (the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT). This is comparable to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The effects of any nuclear exchange would be catastrophic. Apart from millions of human casualties, there would be a long-term social breakdown, with famine and the spread of disease. Medical and other emergency resources would be overwhelmed. Radioactive contamination would spread, causing more and more casualties, as well as incalculable long-term health effects across the region and globe. Kamal Chenoy, a leader of India’s Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, commented: “I’m afraid our political elite do not understand that if we bomb Lahore, people will die in Amritsar as soon as the wind changes.
A Pakistani military official, General Beg, was recently asked at a public meeting in Islamabad if there could be a nuclear catastrophe. “Look,” he said, “I don’t know what you’re worried about. You can die crossing the street, hit by a car, or you could die in a nuclear war. You’ve got to die someday anyway