Author: Shishir Gupta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 6, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=21533
Introduction: Jane's report reinforces
India's firm belief that US has put contingency plan in place
With the US imposing sanctions on
Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) at Kahuta for export of nuclear technology,
India has an added reason to believe that Islamabad's nuclear programme
is being closely monitored by Washington.
The Indian security establishment
is also pointing to the March 21 Jane's Intelligence Digest report which
says a US contingency plan has been put in place to neutralise the threat
of Pakistani nuclear assets and technology falling into the hands of Islamic
fundamentalists.
Headlined 'Musharraf in peril',
the Jane's report says it's important for Washington to ensure that militant
Islamic groups do not get access to Pakistan's nuclear assets and technology.
The fear is that a ''dirty bomb'' could be used to target America.
Although India and US have not discussed
Islamabad's nuclear assets, New Delhi believes that Washington has a ''fair
idea'' where a dozen Pakistani nuclear warheads are located. ''We have
a firm impression that US is closely monitoring Pakistan's nuclear arsenal,''
an official confirmed.
In February, Pakistan Foreign Minister
Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri ruled out any scope for a joint US-Pak command
and control system of Islamabad's nuclear weapons. ''Our nuclear weapons
are in completely safe hands and Pakistan has not transferred nuclear technology
to any country,'' Kasuri said.
But his predecessor Abdul Sattar
had admitted that Islamabad had accepted a US offer to train Pakistani
experts on security and protection of nuclear assets. ''Pakistani experts
will be apprised of security measures being applied by the US,'' he said
on November 1, 2001.
New Delhi feels that though the
US is monitoring Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, it does not want to publicly
embarrass Pervez Musharraf at a time when the Pakistan President is under
attack from Islamic hardliners for keeping quiet on Iraq.
This is evident from the obfuscation
exercise launched by the US State Department on the Pakistan-North Korea
nuclear nexus. The Department's claim that sanctions on KRL - it calls
it a commercial entity though it's at the core of the Pakistani military
establishment - were for ''importation of missiles and related technology.''
But the US embassy spokeswoman statement
in Islamabad on April 1 tells a different story. Embassy spokeswoman Linda
Cheatham said that KRL made ''material contributions'' to another (read
North Korea) country's efforts to ''use, acquire, design, develop and/or
secure weapons of mass destruction, and/or missiles capable of delivering
weapons.''
The Federation of American Scientists
describes KRL as Pakistan's main nuclear weapons laboratory where uranium
is enriched.
While the State Department is coy
about Pakistani nuclear proliferation, New Delhi knows that the clauses
under which sanctions have been placed on KRL relate not to import but
to export of sensitive technology. It believes that Pakistan supplied gas
centrifuges for uranium enrichment to Pyongyang in return for Nodong (read
Ghauri) missiles.
But New Delhi does not want to raise
the contentious issue as it believes that it will be seen through the prism
of Indo-Pakistan relations. It wants Washington to tackle Pakistan on its
own, aware that Islamabad's nuclear programme is under the scanner.
