Get ready for nuclear war, Indian officials tell Kashmiris

In the Castle Bravo nuclear test, the US military detonated a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954.

Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir have warned people to be prepared for the possibility of a nuclear war.

The Kashmir police published a notice in the Greater Kashmir newspaper on Monday, advising people to build bomb shelters in basements and to collect enough food and water for two weeks, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Yoginder Kaul, the inspector-general of the civil defense and state disaster response force, stated, "We routinely train and educate people regarding different natural and man-made disasters and that's our duty. This advertisement too was part of such a campaign. Please, let us not read into this beyond that. Let it be clear that this is purely in the nature of educating people and not connected with anything else.”

One of the residents of the region said, "This is fueling an atmosphere of fear. Educating people is fine but not this brazen way."

The advisory said people should construct bomb shelters in their yards if they do not have basements large enough to house their families.

"Expect some initial disorientation as the blast wave may blow down and carry away many prominent and familiar features," it added.

The advisory also told residents to keep people contaminated by fallout out of their shelters.

Three Pakistani soldiers and two Indian soldiers have been killed in border clashes in Kashmir since the beginning of 2013.

Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 60 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim the region in full but each only has control over a section of the territory.

Over the past two decades, the conflict in Kashmir has left over 47,000 people dead by the official count, although other sources say the death toll could be as high as 90,000.