Nuclear War Between Pakistan and India Would Kill 100 million People 'Immediately' Before Causing Global Mass Starvation, Study Reveals

A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could kill more than 100 million people ‘immediately’, new research has revealed.

Renewed tensions between the two countries has led to scientists at Rutgers University to predict what could happen if the two powers declared war in a paper published on Wednesday.

The scenario, modelled by researchers, envisaged more than 100 million immediate deaths, followed by global mass starvation after megatons of thick black soot blocked out sunlight for up to a decade.

The death toll, however, could rise to 125 million if both countries expended the bulk of their highest yield weapons and put into use powerful 100 kiloton weapons.

India and Pakistan currently each have around 150 nuclear warheads at their disposal, with the number expected to climb to more than 200 by 2025.

It comes at a time of rising tensions between the rivals, who have fought several wars over the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir.  Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:25 UTC - Details)

‘Unfortunately it’s timely because India and Pakistan remain in conflict over Kashmir, and every month or so you can read about people dying along the border,’ said Rutgers University professor Alan Robock, who co-authored the paper in Science Advances.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the part of Kashmir controlled by New Delhi in August, with his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan warning the United Nations last week that the dispute could escalate into nuclear war.

The two countries last fought a border conflict in February, but they pulled back from the brink after Pakistan returned a downed pilot to India.

India has a ‘no first strike’ policy, but reserves the right to mount a nuclear response to any hit by weapons of mass destruction.

Pakistan has declared it would only use nuclear weapons if it could not stop an invasion by conventional means or if it was attacked first with nuclear weapons.

The authors wrote that although their scenario had Pakistan pulling the trigger first, they did not mean to imply they believed this was more likely.

Based on their current populations and the urban centers that would be likely targeted, the researchers estimated up to 125 million could be killed if both countries expended the bulk of their highest yield weapons.

This most extreme scenario would involve the use of 100 kiloton weapons, more than six times as powerful as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

A single airburst from such a bomb could kill two million people and injure 1.5 million – but most of the deaths would occur from the raging firestorms that followed the blast.

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