- Joined
- Sep 15, 2009
- Messages
- 3,564
- Likes
- 6,909
Fearful of a surprise US raid, Pakistan is shuffling its nuclear arsenal frequently in low-security vans on congested roads, making them more vulnerable to snatch by terror groups.Nuclear bombs capable of destroying entire cities are being transported in delivery vans on congested and often unmarked roads to hide them from the US, the country that funds much ofPakistan's military budget, two US magazines reported.The Atlantic and the National Journal, in a joint report said Pakistan's Strategic Plants Division (SPD), which is charged with safeguarding its nukes, has been ordered to shuffle the arsenal often to keep the location of nuclear weapons and components hidden from the US and India.Quoting American and Pakistani sources, the journals said the US raid on Abbottabad to kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had provoked anxiety among the Pakistani army hierarchy about the weapons, leading to increasing the pace of movements of the arsenal.The journals said that before the US raid, Pakistanis were moving the nuclear weapon components by helicopter and in armoured well-defended convoys, but now the SPD was indulging in subterfuge, by moving the war heads in civilian vehicles.US intelligence officials said Pakistanis were using low-security methods not only to transfer de-mated components, but also mated nuclear weapons, raising widespread concerns in the west.The western nuclear experts, the journal said, are more worried as Pakistan was now building small tactical nuclear weapons for quick deployment. In fact, not only was it building these devices, but also now moving them over roads, the journal said, adding that the pace of dispersal movements had increased.US and western intelligence agencies are now very fearful of terror groups in Pakistan being able to lay their hands on nuclear weapons which would compound threats to the free world.Western intelligence experts say any theft of a nuclear weapon could lead to a nuclear 9/11-type attack on Mumbai or New York, as also transfer of nuclear weapons to a state such as Iran.The journals said there was evidence to suggest that neither the Pakistan army, nor the SPD itself considered 'jihadism' the most immediate threat to the security of its nuclear weapons; indeed, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's worry as expressed to SPD chief General Kidwai after Abbottabad was focused on the US.Quoting sources in Pakistan, the journals said Kayani believed that the Abbottabad raid suggested the US had developed the technical means to stage simultaneous raids on Pakistan's nuclear facilities.
Read more at:Fearing US attack, Pakistan shuffles nuclear arsenal in small vans : North News - India Today
Read more at:Fearing US attack, Pakistan shuffles nuclear arsenal in small vans : North News - India Today
