Pakistan on Sunday junked as rubbish a report that elite US troops were ready to counter any move to hijack the countrys nuclear arsenal and said it was a figment of the imagination.
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the insinuations made in the report were baseless and Pakistan government had devised and implemented a foolproof safety and security regime for its nuclear arsenal and related materials. We are confident about our nuclear weapons capability and our custodial controls, Basit said.
The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that the US Army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants,possibly from inside the countrys security apparatus,get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one.
Basit said some Western lobbies do not like Pakistans status as a nuclear weapons state. Such propagandist reports do not serve any purpose except to unnecessarily keep Pakistans nuclear weapons programme in focus, he said.