Pakistani authorities may have rubbished claims about Islamic fundamentalists having access to Pak’s nuclear arsenal but global community and India in particular sees upon it as a matter of grave concern.
An Indian official linked with India’s nuclear program said,
Attempts by Al-Qaida to acquire nukes are well-established.
Owing to the widespread popularity and support, Islamic fundamentalists have got in almost all segments of Pakistani population — common public, military and government agencies. It’s not a mere coincidence that even political experts acknowledge the fact that if ever jihadi outfits acquire nukes, “dirty bomb” as they call it, will have brief Pakistani imprints on them.
Pakistan’s track record, of concealing the secrets of nuclear technology, has not been very good either! Pakistan has proliferated it’s technology to other ‘breeding grounds’ of Islamic terrorists — Libya, Iran and North Korea. ‘Father of Pakistan’s nuclear program’, A.Q.Khan had actually played the most vital role in exporting this technology, which could have never happened if the cause wasn’t supported by Pakistan’s government.
A chilling evidence of this was witnessed in August 2001, when two senior scientists of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Sultan Bashirrudin Mahmood and Chaudhiri Andul Majid, were spotted with Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan.
However, what is bit relieving is the fact that jihadi’s “dirty bombs” won’t be very sophisticated as actual nuclear warheads. They would be type of ‘crude nukes’: basically radiological dispersal devices combining radioactive material with suitable explosives.
Source: TimesofIndia
