New Delhi

Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's nuclear threat from the US soil showed that the neighbouring country is an "irresponsible" state with such weapons, government sources said.

There is a real danger of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of non-state actors in Pakistan, they said adding his remarks are a symptom that democracy does not exist in that country.

In an address to the Pakistani diaspora in Florida's Tampa, Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India.

"We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying.

The Pakistan Army Chief's comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours of aggression, the sources said.

It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said.

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"Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the Field Marshal becomes the President," said a source.