When Donald Trump declared that Kirana Hills in Pakistan was poised for fresh nuclear tests, it wasn’t a moment of strategic clarity—it was a spectacle of confusion, fear-mongering, and hypocrisy. What exactly is he trying to achieve? And whom is he trying to scare?
Trump insists that Pakistan is about to conduct underground nuclear tests. But in doing so, he appears to sidestep the more plausible explanation: the weapons or materials in question might well be American—parked, concealed, and meant for projection against major powers like Russia or China. Now, Trump is pushing the narrative that Pakistan is about to test, and wants us to swallow that as real. The proposition is at once bizarre and laughable.
Consider: Kirana Hills, nestled in Pakistan’s Sargodha district, is widely believed to have been used for sub-critical “cold tests” by Pakistan’s nuclear agencies in the 1980s and early 1990s — including experiments that did not yield a detonation but helped validate warhead designs. A declassified CIA report confirms “explosives test activity … at Kirana Hills North … which may be for HE testing related to the Pakistani nuclear weapons program.”
But there has been no verified recent underground nuclear test there. In fact, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) publicly confirmed there was no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan, including Kirana Hills. The Indian Air Force also officially stated it did not strike Kirana Hills.
So, what is really at play?
First, Trump’s claim acts as a strategic distraction. By levelling the allegation that Pakistan is on the brink of nuclear tests, he diverts attention from the deeper truth—that nuclear stores or infrastructure may well be under US or allied control, or at least facilitated by them. Flipping the script to accuse Pakistan keeps the narrative simple and menacing: Pakistan = nuclear threat.
Second, the timing is telling. Trump, after meeting China’s Xi Jinping and cutting tariffs, now warns Beijing against any military move on Taiwan. So, the nuclear-Pakistan narrative serves a dual purpose: it positions the US as a global “peace-maker” (even after claiming to broker eight wars) while simultaneously pointing the finger at a convenient regional antagonist. In doing so he sidesteps inconsistencies—such as Israel’s continued bombing of Hamas in Gaza even while claiming a ceasefire, or Russia’s explicit threats to resume nuclear tests during its war with Ukraine.
Third, the narrative is absurd when you examine Pakistan’s track record. If Pakistan truly had deployed a fresh nuclear test at Kirana Hills, then it would likely have used such assets in its recent conflict with India—yet there is no sign of that. Instead, India’s Operation Sindoor involved precision missile strikes on air bases like Mushaf and Nur Khan, not confirmed hits on nuclear bunkers. The suggestion that Pakistan sat on nuclear assets and chose not to use them when slammed by Indian strikes simply doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Fourth, this plays neatly into India’s own messaging: Narendra Modi has made it very clear that India will not be intimidated by Pakistan’s nuclear bluster, and that if Islamabad violates the global norms (especially around first-use), then India is ready to pay the price. India’s ongoing 14-day joint “Trishul” exercise involving all three services, staged near the Sir Creek islands, was a clear signal of readiness and resolve. Trump’s Pakistan-nukes claim thus becomes a side-show while real geostrategic signals are being fired elsewhere.
Fifth, the credibility of the Trump narrative is weak. The storyline that Pakistan is about to run underground tests at Kirana Hills lacks independent verification. On the contrary, fact-checkers have flagged imagery and posts circulating online as mis-attributed: e.g., photos claiming to show a tunnel site at Kirana Hills were in fact from the now-closed Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan.
In short: The US, under Trump, is peddling a fear-narrative about Pakistan to serve broader strategic goals—not least managing India-Pakistan tensions in a way that keeps Washington in the loop, and allows it to flex both its conventional and nuclear muscle without owning up to where the assets really lie.
If India chooses to remain calm and credible, it turns the mirror back on Washington: ask who really benefits from hysteria over Pakistan’s alleged tests. Not India. Not Pakistan. But certainly, the narratives Washington wants.
India should call the bluff: demand transparency—not fabricated leaks. It should emphasize that sub-critical tests from decades ago do not equate to new underground detonations, and that the threshold of nuclear use remains massively restrained by mutual deterrence. The Kirana Hills drama is being used to inflame, confuse, and intimidate—and in that respect, Trump’s admission is less revelation than a reheated rerun of Cold-War scare-tactics.
In the end, the real question isn’t whether Pakistan is testing—but whether the US is using Pakistan as a prop in a broader theatre where the object is not South Asia alone, but China, Russia, and global arms dominance. That is the story India—and informed readers—must refuse to ignore.
