By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan’s military warned Tuesday that it would resist any international attempt to seize its nuclear arsenal, as the country successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable Hatf-VII Babur cruise missile.
“No responsible state in the world would contemplate such an impossible operation,” a statement released by Gen. Tariq Majeed, chairman of Pakistan’s joint chiefs of staff, said.
“Yet if someone did create such a scenario, Pakistan would meet the challenge strongly,” he said.
The Bush administration has reportedly been drafting contingency plans to secure the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf’s government collapsed amid the ongoing political crisis or Muslim terrorist groups based here seized power.
Options under consideration include sending in US military units to forcibly find and remove the estimated 50 nuclear warheads in Pakistan’s possession, or assisting the country’s military in moving the weapons to safe locations inside or outside the country.
Majeed asserted that such contingency plans were unnecessary.
“Pakistan’s nuclear assets are very safe and secure, and there is a very strong security system in place which can ward off all threats, internal as well as external,” he said.
The New York Times had reported last month that the US was assisting Pakistan in securing its nuclear weapons through a classified $100 million programme.
The programme includes supplying helicopters, night vision goggles, and nuclear detection equipment to help the Pakistani military secure its nuclear material, warheads and laboratories, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, the military Tuesday test-fired the domestically developed Babur, a low-flying, terrain-hugging and highly manoeuvrable missile. The missile has near-stealth capabilities and can strike targets up to 700 kilometres away, including cities deep inside rival neighbour India, officials have said.
Both countries have nuclear weapons and have fought three conventional wars since their independence and partition in 1947.
President Pervez Musharraf and caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro congratulated scientists and engineers on the successful test and assured them of continued government support in the development of strategic weapons.
The missile test was part of a continuous process of validating the design parameters set for the weapon and would consolidate Pakistan’s strategic capability and strengthen national security, a military statement said.
The Babur missile was first test fired in late July. The following month, the country test fired the air-launched Hatf VIII, which is also capable of carrying nuclear warheads and has a range of 350 km.