Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pakistan's nukes can fall in jihadi hands: India

Sify News

New Delhi: India today voiced concern over the likelihood of Pakistan's nuclear assets falling into the hands of jihadi elements and sought a "different approach" based on "new global consensus" to deal with such a situation.

"The nature of the dangers which nuclear weapons pose has dramatically intensified with the growing risk that such weapons may be acquired by terrorists or jihadi groups who could threaten to use, or worse, even utilise such weapons to carry out attacks against targets which may be located anywhere in the world," Prime Minister's Special Envoy Shyam Saran said here today.

"The mounting concern over the likelihood that in a situation of chaos, Pakistan's nuclear assets may fall into the hands of jihadi elements, fired by the ideology of extremism and mindless violence, underscores how real this danger has become," he said delivering a lecture on 'India and the Nuclear Domain' organised by Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.

Noting that the danger posed by proliferation of nuclear weapons to non-state actors is of a "different and more threatening dimension" than that from the proliferation to additional states, he said, "India has to be deeply concerned about the danger it faces" from this "new and growing threat."...

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