The Hindu : National : 'Pakistan should ensure that nuclear arms do not fall into wrong hands'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

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National

'Pakistan should ensure that nuclear arms do not fall into wrong hands'

By Our Staff Reporter

GURUVAYUR, JAN. 21. The National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister, M.K. Narayanan, has said that India is hopeful that the Pakistan Government will take adequate precaution to ensure that the weapons of mass destruction that the country possesses do not fall into the non-state terror groups.

Mr. Narayanan, here to offer prayers at the Sri Krishna Temple, was replying to questions from mediapersons on the fears expressed recently by the new U.S. State Secretary designate, Condoleezza Rice, about the possibilities of Pakistan's nuclear arms falling into the hands of terrorist groups.

"This is a fear that every country has about the nuclear arms [in the] possession of Pakistan. It is for Pakistan to ensure that their weapons of mass destruction do not fall into the hands of non-state terror groups. It is not for us to do. I do not think there is anything serious that we need to take up. On our side we have taken every precautionary measures to ensure that our nuclear facilities as well as the military equipments are not accessible to non-State groups,'' Mr. Narayanan said.

He replied in the negative to a question whether India apprehended the possibility of Pakistan launching nuclear strikes against India. "I think both the countries are responsible enough to desist from indulging in such actions."

Replying to questions, he said that India viewed the recent bout of shell attacks on the India-Pakistan border as "nothing very serious." The Pakistan Government has also said that it is not taking the clashes seriously. The two Directors-General of Military Operations (DGMOS) are discussing the incident.

R-Day threats

On the question about the threats of terrorist strikes on Republic Day, Mr. Narayanan said: "Every year, close to the Republic Day, we get a very high number of threats through intercepted electronic messages, This time the number of such threats is less compared to other years. So far we have received only one or two messages from Assam and one in Delhi from an ULFA source. They have been acted up on already."

According to him there appeared to be nothing serious in the recent intelligent reports of possible terrorist attacks in Kerala. However, the police are taking all precautions.

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