Tensions between Pakistan and India flared up as India conducted its nuclear tests. This forced Sharif to announce that Pakistan would give a befitting reply. On 23 March 1988, Pakistan conducted its first nuclear tests and became the seventh in the world, second in South Asia and the first among the Muslim majority countries to have developed nuclear bombs. Tensions were to flare up again in the 1999 Kargil War. Tension between the military and government led to the 1999 Pakistani coup.