IAEA must monitor ‘rogue’ Pak’s nuclear weapons arsenal: Rajnath
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh questioned Pakistan's control of nuclear weapons, urging global oversight by IAEA, calling Pakistan "irresponsible and rogue."
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 “irresponsible 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 radiation 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 statement. India has already refuted reports that it targetted Pakistan’s Kirana Hills area, which reportedly houses a nuclear facility, during a wave of airstrikes against terror hubs and military installations in the country.
Singh said India’s unwavering resolve against Pakistan-backed terror --- demonstrated by Operation Sindoor --- was unaffected by its nuclear blackmail, adding that the world knows how Islamabad has issued nuclear threats to New Delhi on multiple occasions.
Operation Sindoor was India’s direct military response to the April 22 terror strike at Pahalgam 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 counterattacks 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 hostilities were stopped on Saturday evening as the two nations reached an understanding.
“Pakistan will pay a heavier price if it continues to support terrorism. It must stop sheltering anti-India and terrorist organisations...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 Pakistan.
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.
“India has always prioritised peace and never supported war. But when its sovereignty is attacked, it is necessary to respond,” the defence minister said.
His visit to Srinagar came a day after the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by the PM, met to review the security dynamics on the western border following the May 10 understanding that ended four days of fierce fighting with the neighbouring country.
Operation Sindoor was a message to the world that India can go to any extent in its fight against terrorism, Singh said, calling it the country’s most muscular action against terror and a testament to its firm resolve to end the scourge.
Pakistan has reached a point where it is begging for loans from the International Monetary Fund, and India is among the countries that provide funds to IMF so that it can help poor nations, he said. Last week, IMF approved a $1 billionbailout to Pakistan.
“Wherever Pakistan stands, the line of beggars starts from that point.”
He reiterated the government’s stand that terror and talks can’t go together, and “if talks are held, it will only be on terrorism and PoK.”
On May 12, the Indian Army director general of military operations Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai and his Pakistani counterpart spoke over the hotline to uphold the uneasy truce. Neither side has since fired a single shot, a key condition for the ceasefire, though Pakistan has attempted to violate the truce with some drones sighted over Indian cities on Saturday night and Monday night.
“We have only paused our retaliatory action against terror and military bases in Pakistan. In the coming days, every step taken by Pakistan will be monitored...any terror attack will get a befitting response, on our terms, in our way,” Modi said in his address to the nation on May 12.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the defence minister’s remarks in a post on X. Singh’s remarks show India’s “insecurity and frustration” about Pakistan’s “effective defence and deterrence against Indian aggression through conventional means,” Islamabad said.
The IAEA is a Vienna-based U.N. watchdog which monitors nuclear programmes to ensure they are peaceful. The IAEA monitors several Indian civilian nuclear facilities under a2009 agreement.The IAEA has conducted inspections of Pakistani nuclear facilities through its the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS). These inspections have focused on regulations governing Pakistani civil nuclear facilities and activities.
