40 years ago April 9, 1986: PM on Pakistan and nukes

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2 min readApr 9, 2026 06:40 AM IST First published on: Apr 9, 2026 at 06:40 AM ISTPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi declared that if Pakistan acquired a nuclear weapon, India would have to “seriously think” about its nuclear options. Gandhi said there were indications that Pakistan was “bent on acquiring a nuclear weapon”. India’s nuclear programme was entirely peaceful and it did not want to go ahead with a nuclear weapons programme. However, a nuclear weapon with Pakistan would change the security environment in the region. Therefore, the PM said, India “will have to seriously think of our options”Gorbachev’s warningThe leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared that if the US persists in carrying forward its Star Wars programme, the Soviet Union “will find an effective answer and not necessarily in outer space”. He, however, did not elaborate. The Soviet leader was addressing a public meeting at the automobile and industrial city of Kuibyshev.Police remand for SobhrajAdvertisementThe Delhi Police obtained the remand of Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj, who had fled Tihar Jail along with six others on March 16 from the residence of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Subhas Wason, in a highly secretive manner. Sobhraj and his British accomplice, David Richard Hall, were remanded to police custody till April 16.Four killed in PunjabFour persons were killed while two, including a police constable, were injured in a spate of violence incidents in the state of Punjab. Several stabbings have also been reported.