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Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts

No plans to attack Pak nuclear arsenal: Taliban

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Anonymous

The Taliban have no plans to attack Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, their spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

A larger assault earlier this week by the Taliban on a naval base in Karachi renewed fears that Pakistan’s sizable nuclear arsenal could be vulnerable. 

Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, dismissed those concerns on Wednesday as America’s “excuse” to pressure Pakistan’s government into fighting the Taliban, who he portrayed as the country’s true protectors.

“Pakistan is the only Muslim nuclear power state,” Ehsan said in a telephonic interview, adding that the Taliban had no intention of changing that fact. He mocked Pakistan’s willingness to work with the US, saying, “Isn’t it a shame for us to have the Islamic bomb, and even then we are bowing down to the pressures of America.” 

Following the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Taliban offered to fight against India alongside Pakistan’s army in the event of war. Still, it was impossible to judge the sincerity of Ehsan’s declaration regarding Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. 

Even if the Pakistani Taliban have no designs on the arms, there are myriad groups which are believed to have interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
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'US to deploy troops if Pak nukes come under threat'

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Anonymous

US troops will be deployed in Pakistan if the nation's nuclear installations come under threat from terrorists out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Sunday Express can reveal on Sunday.

The plan, which would be activated without President Asif Ali Zardari's consent, provoked an angry reaction from Pakistan officials last night. Barack Obama would order troops to parachute in to protect key nuclear missile sites. These include the air force's central Sargodha HQ, home base for nuclear-capable F-16 combat aircraft and at least 80 ballistic missiles.

A US source told the Sunday Express: "The plan is green lit and the president has already shown he is wiling to deploy troops in Pakistan if he feels it is important for national security." However, news of the plan has further increased tension between the US and Pakistan with relations already at an all-time low after the Operation Geronimo raid by the US Navy Seal special forces team that killed bin Laden at the house where he had been hiding in Abbottabad, near to a Pakistan military academy. 

An angry Pakistani official said: "Pakistan has an elaborate command and control structure and is fully capable of defending its strategic assets under any circumstances and does not need any assistance from any country, including the US, to safeguard its nuclear installations."

The plan reflects growing concern over reprisals for the al-Qaeda terror leader's death. More than 80 people were killed and 140 injured when two Taliban suicide bombers struck at a military academy in the north-western town of Charsadda on Friday.

Alex Neill, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: "The United States places its own national security issues above all other sovereignty issues and trust in Pakistan's abilities are extremely low."

"If Obama can persuade congress that placing US troops at the installations is necessary to protect US citizens from possible nuclear attack, then that's what he will do." The Pentagon on Saturday refused to deny the existence of the plan, with a spokesman saying only: "We are confident that Pakistan has taken appropriate steps towards securing its nuclear arsenal."
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Pakistan orders safety review of nuke plants

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Anonymous

Pakistan’s nuclear regulator on Tuesday ordered a safety review of the country’s two atomic power plants in the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster, warning that further steps could be required.
The Pakistan Nuclear Regulator Authority (PNRA) said it asked the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) “to revisit the safety aspects of the nuclear power plants at Karachi and Chashma”.
Pakistan suffered a major 7.6 magnitude earthquake in October 2005 that killed 73,000 people and made more than three million others homeless in Kashmir and northwest, but its nuclear plants remained safe.
“PNRA will continue to study the accident at Fukushima and the response of Japanese and other regulatory authorities and may ask PAEC to take additional measures,” it said.
The authority said the nuclear power plants in Pakistan “do not pose any unwarranted radiation hazard” and operate on par with international standards.
China built a 300-megawatt nuclear power reactor at Chashma in Punjab province that went operational in 2000 and another of the same capacity is under construction. A plant in Karachi produces 50 megawatts.
China has also been contracted to build two more reactors at Chashma, officials have said.
Pakistan joined the club of nuclear-armed states in 1998. It scrambled to secure the technology after India’s first nuclear test in 1974, and is now believed to have up to 100 nuclear weapons.
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