India worried about Pak N-control

With the Taliban unleashing a series of attacks on Pakistan's defence installations, including a military base linked to its strategic

programme, there is growing worry about Islamabad's ability to safeguard its nuclear arsenal. "The internal security situation in Pakistan seems to be deteriorating every day. We really don't know for how long and how far its establishment would be able to adequately safeguard its strategic assets," minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju said on Wednesday. Asked about the possibility of Pakistani nuclear weapons or even enriched uranium falling into Taliban's hands, the minister said, "I hope they (Pakistan) are taking adequate measures and we hope that such an incident will not happen," he added. The ongoing turmoil in Pakistan, coupled with its huge stockpile of enriched uranium and the long-standing `sympathetic' links forged by some elements of the country's security establishment with jihadi outfits, could well spell danger for the world at large. Jihadi outfits armed with `dirty bombs' -- basically radiological dispersal devices combining radioactive material with suitable explosives -- are after all what `nightmare scenarios' are often made up of.

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