Pak n-strike on India would take 8 seconds

The warnings are relayed by Campbell in a section in his latest diaries,The Burden of Power,which are being serialised in The Guardian on Saturday and Monday. The diaries start on the day of the 9/11 attacks and end with Campbells decision to stand down in August 2003 after the Iraq war. The nuclear warnings came during a visit by Blair to the Indian subcontinent after 9/11.

Campbell was told about the eight-second threat over a dinner in Islamabad on October 5,2001 hosted by Pervez Musharraf,then Pakistans president.

Campbell writes: At dinner I was between two five-star generals who spent most of the time listing atrocities for which they held the Indians responsible,killing their own people and trying to blame freedom fighters. He said the tewo were discussing the possibility of a nuclear was because of Indias instability. He added: The livelier of the two generals asked me to remind the Indians: It takes us eight seconds to get the missiles over, then flashed a huge toothy grin.