Pak's ability to safeguard nuclear assets doubtful: Raju

Minister of state for Defence MM Pallam Raju on Wednesday raised doubt over whether Pakistan would be able to safeguard its nuclear arsenal from the Taliban.

"I think the internal security situation in Pakistan seems to be deteriorating everyday and we really don't know how long and how far the establishment there will be adequately able to safeguard their strategic assets like their nuclear assets. And I hope they are taking adequate measures and we hope that such an incident will not happen," Raju told reporters.

Pakistan has faced a spree of terror attacks in recent times when the Pakistani army is involved in a massive offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan.

There have been several retaliatory attacks since the offensive began last month, including a deadly car bomb blast in Peshawar that killed over 100 people.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, Raju said that adequate precautions are being taken to safeguard the prestigious National Defence College that, according to FBI, was one of the prime targets of Lashkar-e-Toiba.

"I think there is a constant review of threat perceptions and threat targets, which we constantly collect and we work on the safeguards adequately. You can be rest assured that adequate precaution is taken whenever there is a threat perception," said Raju.

On being asked about the steps taken by the government to prevent recurrence of 26/11 like Mumbai terror attacks, Raju said that all kinds of measures are being taken to prevent such events from happening in future.

"If an instance like that should happen again, the response time is faster and more important than that we are taking all kinds of measures in terms of coordinating intelligence sharing and information gathering in order to prevent such an event from happening," Raju said. (ANI)

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