Thaindian News

London, May 5 (ANI): Despite the growing international concerns about the safety of the nuclear arsenals in the country amid the expanding writ of the Taliban, Pakistan is expanding its nuclear capability, the Guardian reports.

David Albright, former weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has claimed that two plutonium-producing reactors are nearing completion at Khushab, about 160 miles south-west of the capital, Islamabad.

Albright said commercial satellite pictures of the region prove that Pakistan is expanding its nuclear capability.

Raising questions over the country’s nuclear arsenals in the current precarious situation, Albright said: “In the current climate, with Pakistan’s leadership under duress from daily acts of violence by insurgent Taliban forces and organised political opposition, the security of any nuclear material produced in these reactors is in question.”

The Khushab reactors are situated near the border of Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where the military and the Taliban are engaged in heavy confrontation.

Beside, the Khusab reactors terror threat also looms large over the Gadwal uranium enrichment plant especially after an incident when a suicide bomber had blew himself up outside the Kamra complex in 2007.

John Bolton, a hawkish former senior official in the Bush administration, had recently also expressed concerns over the safety of these nuclear facilities.

“There is a tangible risk that several weapons could slip out of military control. Such weapons could then find their way to Al Qaeda or other terrorists, with obvious global implications,” Bolton had said. (ANI)