Islamic State Lays Claim on Pak Nukes
Author ALLABAKSH – Wednesday, 27 05 2015 11:24
The claim by the Islamic State that it can ‘buy’ a nuclear device from Pakistan for a spectacular attack on the US soil sounds more like a propaganda statement than a realistic warning. The purport of the claim on buying nukes, made on an IS website, is obviously to keep the morale of the present and prospective IS fighters from various parts of the world high as they take over newer and newer territories.
But then it may be unwise to altogether dismiss the ‘boast’ for two reasons. One, IS is a group of fanatics totally blinded by their belief in the power of the gun and untouched by normal human values and considerations. Two, Pakistan has a known nuclear proliferation record of clandestine buying and selling of nuclear technology.
It also needs to be added that in recent days, reports have emerged that suggest that Saudi Arabia has a claim on Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile because the royals in Riyadh had magnanimously financed Pakistan’s nuclear programme from the time metallurgist, A.Q. Khan, had escaped to his native Pakistan with European designs from Holland several decades ago.
Khan, after working on the ‘Islamic Bomb’ under the supervision of Z.A. Bhutto, stepped into the business of lucrative moon shining by selling nuclear technology. It included the process of enriching uranium and missile delivery systems that Pakistan had secretly obtained from North Korea in exchange for exporting its nuclear technology. Everything was going on well for Pakistan’s nuclear programme with active collaboration of China and the benign eye of the US which at that time treated Pakistan as a trusted ally in its fight against the Soviet Union and its plans to contain a pro-Soviet India.
For close to 40 years, Pakistan’s nuclear programme flourished without any fear of the US making a noise about the Chinese involvement in proliferation activities in Pakistan or the AQ Khan nuclear Wall-Mart. Khan had sold the nuclear technology that he had worked on in Pakistani laboratories to a number of clients, prominent being Libya, Iraq and North Korea. But he had also struck deals with a number of other Muslim countries. And, of course, the Saudis had come to assume that they need not bother about making their own nuclear weapons because they could have instant access to the Pakistani nukes by virtue of being the most generous fund provider of the programme.
As was to be expected, Pakistan has rejected the reports about its secret understanding on supplying nuclear weapons to Riyadh which lately has been rather jittery in the face of rising Islamic militancy led by a group which is completely beyond its control.
The Saudis had disclaimed patronage to Al Qaeda which had its origin in Saudi Arabia, a nation which does support the extreme form of Wahabi Islam that militants have adopted as their creed. Osama bin Laden was a rich Saudi Arabian. Most of the funds for Al Qaeda came from the Saudis. There may have been no official sanction for Al Qaeda but it certainly had many benefactors in the Saudi kingdom who could not have been unknown to the circles that matter.
Following 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the US mounted pressure on Pakistan to make sure that its nuclear arsenal was beyond the reach of terrorist groups. Pakistan has also claimed that its ‘crown jewels’ were safe and secure beyond the reach of terrorists. How true it is cannot be said.
Fanaticism, intolerance and radical beliefs have taken deep roots in the land of the pure which was carved out of British India in 1947 as the homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent. There are scientists in the atomic establishment of Pakistan who are Jihad sympathizers. Two of them, occupying very senior positions, had to be removed from service after their sympathies became known to the world.
It is necessary to remember that the key to Pakistani nuclear arsenal is with the military, not the civilian rulers. Thanks to the fundamentalist zeal of a former Pakistani military dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, the Pakistani army is dominated by religious zealots, right from the level of ordinary soldier to the generals. A 1995 plot to kill Benazir Bhutto was reportedly prepared by army officers. The lead author of this plot was a Major General, who, as Brigadier, had served in the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi as the ISI agent-in-chief in India.
Many of the heads of ISI have been known to be sympathetic to the Islamic radicals. One of them, Hamid Gul, had once proudly boasted to Indian journalists his authorship of the ‘bleeding with thousand cuts’ jihadist proxy war against India.
Pakistan dismisses threat to it coming from the Islamic State. Pakistan denies that it ever sold nuclear technology to a foreign country. These denials have not helped Pakistan from escaping from its low standing in the world as a country that has adopted terror as a state policy. Can it be doubted that Pakistan is a fertile ground for all sorts of extremist activities, including IS? And does it look impossible that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons will not be exported, overtly or covertly, to extremist groups? The Jury is out.
– See more at: http://www.dailykashmirimages.com/news-islamic-state-lays-claim-on-pak-nukes-79714.aspx#.dpuf
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