Casualties and capabilities of both sides .. Study on the risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A recent US study examined the danger of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan amid rising tensions between the two sides over the current crisis in Kashmir.

According to the study published in the journal Science Advancement on Wednesday that the two countries in a nuclear war could kill 125 million people if India used 100 nuclear warheads to attack urban centers, and Pakistan used 150 warheads.

As of 2019, India and Pakistan now have between 140 and 150 nuclear warheads, but the number could rise to 200 or 250 each by 2025, she said.

The study said Pakistani missiles could reach all parts of India through longer-range launch systems.

"Since India has about 400 cities, each with more than 100,000 people, Pakistan is likely to attack more than a third of India's medium and large cities with their current arsenals and more than two-thirds by 2025."

She added that the range of missiles owned by New Delhi allowed to reach all the territory of Pakistan now.

The study said that India does not need a lot of weapons to attack Pakistan, as it is smaller, but India may lose more deaths as a population of six times the population of Pakistan.

"There will be a regional catastrophe if India and Pakistan engage in a full-scale nuclear war."

Kashmir Wars
India and Pakistan fought three wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, two of them in the context of the Kashmir conflict, killing nearly 70,000 people from both sides.

On August 5, India abolished the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that autonomy had increased the aspirations of the separatist population.

For more than a month, New Delhi has imposed a curfew and restrictions on communications in the region, according to the head of the Kashmir Institute for International Relations Hussein Wani.

The new measures raised tension between New Delhi and Islamabad, which demands the annexation of the Indian-controlled part of the region, to Pakistani sovereignty.