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Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and the al Qaeda threat

Estimates vary on the size of Pakistan’s and India’s nuclear arsenals, although analysts suggest India has 70-120 nuclear weapons while Pakistan has 60-120. These can be delivered by aircraft, or by missiles, which both countries have been developing and testing.

Factbox: Pakistan’s nuclear capability Reuters 6 May 11, Back in the 1990s, bin Laden said acquiring nuclear weapons was a “religious duty” of Muslim states and the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2009 said the group hoped to seize and use Pakistan’s arsenal.

“God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

An al Qaeda assault on a nuclear facility in Pakistan would most likely be unsuccessful, given the high security surrounding sensitive sites, but worries remain that militants in the country could obtain some type of nuclear material through infiltrating the security services…..

Estimates vary on the size of Pakistan’s and India’s nuclear arsenals, although analysts suggest India has 70-120 nuclear weapons while Pakistan has 60-120. These can be delivered by aircraft, or by missiles, which both countries have been developing and testing.

Analysts believe the nuclear weapons have reduced the likelihood of a conventional war between India and Pakistan. At the same time, they have opened the way to unconventional proxy wars. India accuses Pakistan of using its nuclear umbrella as a cover for what it calls cross-border terrorism by Islamist militants, a charge Pakistan rejects….

Factbox: Pakistan’s nuclear capability | Reuters

May 6, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Pakistan, weapons and war