PESHAWAR, Nov 10: One kilogram of anthrax spores are enough for killing five million people, said Prof Najib-ul-Haq, a renowned physician of Khyber Teaching Hospital here on Saturday.

He said that the use of anthrax phenomenon as a weapon was not a new one as it had already been used by some countries. Some even used it against their own population just to examine its efficacy,” he added.

He was addressing a workshop on “Disaster Management”, organised by the hospital in collaboration with Pakistan Islamic Medical Association.

Director General Health, Brig Habibur Rehman inaugurated the workshop as a chief guest. Dr Zahir Shah, chief executive KTH and president PIMA, Dr Hafizur Rehman were also present on the occasion.

In his lecture on “Biological Warfare”, Dr Najib gave background history about the use of biological weaponry and said that Tatars were the first to use it in 1364 by the method of plague-infected corpses in the Italian trade settlements.

“With this a new era of biological warfare began,” he observed. However, he condemned this type of weaponry for mass killing and termed it “uncivilised”.

Dr Inamur Rehman, Prof Emeritus Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Technology, Islamabad, in his lecture on “nuclear warfare”, said that the technology could be used for good as well as evil purposes.

He dwelt at length on the catastrophe brought on by the nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and warned: “The present mistrust and suspicions among the nations could ultimately trigger a widespread global nuclear war, resulting in the doomsday”.

About nuclear terrorism, Dr Inam said it implied sabotaging a nuclear reactor forcefully to cause spread of radiation or stealing nuclear weaponry. However, he dispelled the impression about the use of atomic weapons by an individual or a group of individuals.

Earlier, Dr Saeed Akhtar of Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, spoke about disaster management and stressed that it was a collective job of many organizations including police, fire brigade, civil defence and hospitals.