rediff.com
rediff.com
News Find/Feedback/Site Index
      HOME | NEWS | REPORT
March 15, 2000

NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Pak makes nukes even as Clinton comes over

E-Mail this report to a friend

It is the logical thing to do and it is almost in place.

Stands to reason, it does, that Pakistan is in the process of aiming a few dozen missiles at India. Not just any ordinary missiles, mind you, but deadly nuclear-tipped ones, warns a United States policy group.

The revelation comes in the wake of, yes, American President Bill Clinton's proposed visit to the region. The Federation of American Scientists, a non-profit outfit for nuclear non-proliferation, has uploaded to its Web site images of Pakistan's weapons facilities "previously known only to the secret intelligence world."

"Pakistan has laid the groundwork for a force of dozens of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking Indian cities and military bases," said John Pike, the director of the FAS's Public Eye project, which monitors satellite imagery.

The imagery, the Web site tells you, covers two of Pakistan's most important special weapons facilities, the plutonium production reactor at Khushab, and the medium range missile base at Sargodha.

"Plutonium from the Khushab reactor would probably be used in light-weight nuclear warheads for the M-11 missiles at Sargodha, which Pakistan acquired from China in the early 1990s. The new satellite imagery indicates that construction of the Khushab reactor is essentially complete, and that Pakistan has built a dozen garages for mobile missile launchers and associated vehicles at Sargodha," it noted.

FAS came into possession of these damning photographs thanks to the Colorado-based Space Imaging Inc, which launched a satellite last autumn that can take pictures nearly as close to the ground as spy satellites do. With this, satellite images had become more widely available as Space Imaging sells its pictures commercially for around $2,000 per piece.

Earlier, such photos could be obtained only by government employees with security clearances.

Pakistan, however, doesn't have it all rosy, according to Pike. "... Pakistan is in danger of having most of its nuclear eggs in one basket, which would be a tempting target for a pre-emptive Indian attack in a time of crisis," he said.

The earlier US policy, FAS noted, had tried to prevent India and Pakistan from acquiring nuclear capability. But now that that has failed, the focus was to reduce the risk of using these weapons.

"With Pakistan and India apparently moving ahead with deploying nuclear forces, the danger of such attacks will grow," he said.

The FAS had earlier campaigned against North Korea by publishing pictures of its missile site. Now it is the turn of Pakistan.

The site also has information about India's nuclear and missile facilities.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report

HOME | NEWS | BUSINESS | MONEY | SPORTS | MOVIES | CHAT | INFOTECH | TRAVEL
SINGLES | NEWSLINKS | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | GIFT SHOP | HOTEL BOOKINGS
AIR/RAIL | WEATHER | MILLENNIUM | BROADBAND | E-CARDS | EDUCATION
HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | CONTESTS | FEEDBACK