London, August 11: As per media reports, the nuclear sites of Pakistan are believed to have been attacked thrice by terrorists in the last two years.
Reports attribute the same to Professor Shaun Gregory of Bradford University in UK who says the incidents include an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan’s nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan’s main nuclear weapons assembly.
Despite Pakistan ensuring the fortification of its facilities, especially considering the US and India, these attacks have occurred and interestingly have not been reported that much.
Pakistan’s nuke facilities are at the north and the west and the fact that many are in close proximity to Taliban-dominated areas is a matter of serious concern.
Gregory also says that in spite of a formal command authority structures that cede a role to civilian leadership, actually the Army there has a grip on nuclear weapons.
Elaborating what Islamabad has done to protect its nuclear assets from external aggression, sources quote Gregory as saying that Pakistan has a “robust set of measures to assure the security of its nuclear weapons.” These have been based on copying US practices, procedures and technologies, and comprise: a) physical security; b) personnel reliability programs; c) technical and procedural safeguards; and d) deception and secrecy.
But while saying this, Gregory also mentions that simultaneously, the nuke sites suffer from certain vulnerabilities and weaknesses due to which these attacks were made possible.
–Agencies