ISLAMABAD: News reports about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, including questions about its safety, are part of a malicious campaign that is counterproductive to efforts to defeat terrorism, a Pakistani spokesman said yesterday.
As Pakistan battles a growing Taleban insurgency, reports in US media have raised the nightmare scenario of its nuclear weapons falling into militant hands. Pakistan has repeatedly stressed its weapons are safe.
This week, the New York Times reported US lawmakers were told in confidential briefings that Pakistan was rapidly adding to its nuclear capability, stoking fears in Congress about diversion of US funds. “We consider this ... a malicious campaign against Pakistan which in our view is contrary to facts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a regular briefing.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and India have started sharing intelligence as part of an unprecedented cooperation effort between the longtime nuclear-armed foes overseen by the United States, US media reported yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranged for the two South Asian nations to share information on the Pakistan-based militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), widely accused of plotting the November attacks in Mumbai that killed 179 people.
The arrangement has also applied to intelligence sharing on Taleban commanders who are leading a mounting insurgency against the Pakistani government, the Journal added, citing US officials. “We have to satisfy the Mumbai question, and show India that the threat is abating,” an official involved in Washington’s South Asia strategy told the newspaper.
