New Delhi: Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has confirmed ThePrint’s report about Field Marshal Asim Munir likening India to a “shining Mercedes” and Pakistan to a “dump truck full of gravel”, by publicly repeating the analogy and quoting the country’s army chief.
The unusual metaphor had been used by Munir in an interaction with overseas Pakistanis in Florida during his US trip earlier this month.
At a seminar in Lahore, Naqvi said, “Our intelligence agencies have the information beforehand, and that is why we were able to achieve victory. The Field Marshal himself has repeated this story in Brussels, where he told the Saudi delegation that India is a shining Mercedes and Pakistan is a dump truck, filled with stones and other things. Now you imagine when both collide, what will happen to the Mercedes. The Saudi delegation was quiet.”
As ThePrint had reported, Munir had made these statements during a private dinner in the US too, while threatening to “take half the whole world down” and plunge the region into nuclear war should his country face an existential threat in a future war with India.
“India is shining a Mercedes coming on a highway like Ferrari, but we are a dump truck full of gravel. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?” Munir had said at a luncheon hosted by Adnan Asad in Florida. This exclusive report by ThePrint had made national headlines.
Naqvi not only confirmed Munir’s remarks, but also expanded on Pakistan’s version of the recent military tensions with India, post Operation Sindoor in May when India had retaliated for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Naqvi claimed that during the brief confrontation in May, Pakistan had advanced intelligence about India’s operational plans. “Whatever strategy India devised, we learned about it in time,” he said. He added that none of Pakistan’s critical military assets were damaged during the missile strikes, a claim that has been debunked by satellite imagery released by independent experts.
Praising Pakistan’s response, Naqvi claimed that retaliatory missile strikes targeted Indian military installations near civilian areas without causing civilian casualties. “We destroyed one of their biggest oil depots. That is when we knew that God was helping us,” he said, making yet another claim which is not backed by evidence or satellite imagery.
Naqvi lauded the role of intelligence agencies during the episode, crediting them for providing critical foresight into India’s intentions. “The army, air force, navy, and government have all been acknowledged, but our intelligence agencies were doing important work behind the scenes,” he said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)