India and Pakistan came close to a nuclear war four years ago, which was only averted when America intervened, Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, has claimed.
In a new book, Pompeo says a “nuclear conflagration” almost occurred in 2019 after India launched airstrikes against militants in Pakistani territory in retaliation for an attack that killed 40 Indian troops in Kashmir. Pakistan then claimed it had shot down two Indian warplanes and captured a fighter pilot.
Pompeo, who was in Hanoi for a summit between Donald Trump, then US president, and Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, at the time of the crisis, said he would “never forget the night” when he was woken by an urgent call from an Indian
