"India shouldn't forget Pakistan has an atom bomb," Shazia Marria had said on Saturday. (FILE)
A day after threatening India with a nuclear war, Pakistan Minister Shazia Marri today defended her country's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto's offensive comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Pakistan's FM responded to inciting comments by Indian Minister. Pakistan has sacrificed far more than India in the fight against terrorism," she tweeted.
She also said that "Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state", just a day after she issued an "atom bomb" warning to India.
"India should not forget that Pakistan has an atom bomb," the Pakistan Peoples Party leader said. "Our nuclear status is not meant to remain silent. We will not back down if the need arises," news agency ANI reported quoting Bol News.
Bilawal Bhutto, in a highly objectionable comment, had said: "Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives." The comment was termed as "a new low, even for Pakistan" by the Indian government.
Condemning Mr Bhutto's remarks at the UN, New Delhi said Pakistan lacks the credentials to cast aspersions on India and added that "Make in Pakistan terrorism" has to stop.
India said Pakistan is a country that glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and shelters terrorists like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim.
PM Modi has been cleared of any wrongdoing by investigations into the 2002 Gujarat riots which resulted in killings of over 1,000 people.