IAEA must monitor 'rogue' Pak's nuclear weapons arsenal: Rajnath

 

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday questioned if nuclear weapons were safe in Pakistan's control and custody, and demanded Islamabad's arsenal be placed under the supervision of global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calling the country "irresponsi-ble and rogue".

"I raise this question before the world: Are nuclear weapons safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation? Pakistan's nuclear weapons should be brought under the supervision of the IAEA," Singh said while addressing soldiers at Srinagar's Badami Bagh Cantt where the army's Chinar Corps is headquartered.

His comments came even as IAEA said there was no radia-tion leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan. "Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan," the watchdog said in a state-ment. India has already refuted reports that it targeted Paki-stan's Kirana Hills area, which reportedly houses a nuclear facility, during a wave of air-strikes against terror hubs and military installations in the country.

India's direct military response to the April 22 terror strike at Pahal gam in Kashmir that killed 26 civilians all men, 24 of them Hindu tourists - in what was the worst attack on civilians since the 26/11 Mumbai strikes.

indian forces launched the operation in the early hours of May 7, bombing nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The pre-dawn strikes on May 7-in which at least 100 terrorists were killed according to political leaders briefed about the attack by the defence minister --- sparked a series of attacks and counterat tacks across the western border, involving fighter jets, missiles, armed drones, and fierce artillery and rocket duels. In one such counterattack on the night of May 9-10, the Indian Air Force struck targets at 13 Pakistani air bases and military installations. After four days of fighting, military hos-tilities were stopped on Saturday evening as the two nations reached an understanding.

"Pakistan will pay a heavier price if it continues to support ter-rorism. It must stop sheltering anti-India and terrorist organisa-tions... They killed innocent people based on their religion; this was Pakistan's karma. We killed them for their karma; this was our Indian dharma," Singh said.

Since the attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared a new doctrine on dealing with Pak-istan.

Any attack on Indian soil will be viewed as an act of war, Singh said, reiterating the government's clear stand on terror. Modi has already made it clear that the strikes on "universities of terror" sponsored by Islamabad marked a new normal.