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10,000 men protecting N-assets: official
By Kamran YousafThursday, 28 May, 2009 | 04:16 AM PST |
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | 10,000 men protecting N-assets: official
ISLAMABAD: A senior official of the countrys premier defence nuclear establishment has said that a large force of nearly 10,000 people is in place to ensure security of Pakistans nuclear arsenal and western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded.
Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, who is director of arms control and disarmament affairs at the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), said that Pakistans command and control structure for the weapons was better than that of many other nuclear states, and many countries and their experts had officially acknowledged this.
In a rare interview with DawnNews, Air Commodore Banuri described as preposterous western media reports that Pakistans nuclear weapons might fall into wrong hands terrorists or other non-state actors. The intent clearly appears to be mala fide, he said. It does not make sense for anyone to continue to harp on this despite having understanding of how Pakistan does its work.
He said: We have taken stringent measures which are legislative, institutional, procedural and administrative. We have ensured all aspects of nuclear capability.
Elaborating, he said that a large force of highly trained and professional people in fact over 10,000 people were looking after the security of the nuclear assets.
Answering a question, Air Commodore Banuri said Pakistan constantly maintained contact with a number of states on the nuclear issue.
We have interaction with several countries, including the US, EU and Japan, and the IAEA. What we have with the US, this is clearly known . Our interaction with the US is based on the two basic principles, non-intrusiveness and our right to pick and choose. However, he made it clear that such interactions did not mean that Pakistan had granted access to anyone to its nuclear assets.
DawnNews TV will air a special report titled Whos afraid of the bomb at 3.30pm on Thursday, and the detailed interview of Air Commodore Khalid Banuri at 11.30pm on Friday