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India hopes Pakistan nuclear arsenal is safe

Special Correspondent

Nirupama Rao

NEW DELHI: India on Friday expressed the hope that Pakistan government would “effectively secure” its nuclear assets, amid rising concerns over their safety in the wake of a terror strike at a facility housing such arsenal in that country.

“We have seen reports of what happened today at Kamra (in Pakistan). We hope the Pakistan government will continue to take steps to effectively secure their nuclear assets,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told journalists here.

She was asked to comment on the terror attack near a strategic military complex reportedly linked to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme near Islamabad.

26/11 case probe

She also expressed unhappiness over “very very slow and tardy” progress of investigation and prosecution in the 26/11 attacks case as also in the case relating to the attack on Indian embassy in Kabul last year.

Asked about the sense India was getting about the status of probe and prosecution by Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks, she referred to the meeting she had with Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and the discussions External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna had with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York last month.

“During these meetings, of course, we emphasised our concerns about the very very slow and tardy pace of action being taken against those responsible, conspirators and others responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks,” she said.

Kabul attack probe

She also expressed disappointment over lack of progress in probe by Pakistan into the terror attack on Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7 last, which was suspected to have been carried out by Taliban in collaboration with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

On the latest attack on the Kabul embassy on October 8, she said the Afghan leadership had pointed to “involvement of forces that, in all likelihood, operated from across its border.” She said that Afghanistan was conducting an enquiry and results were awaited.

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