NEW DELHI: India carried out an undergro­und nuclear explosion at 0805 this morning [May 18] “somewhere in western India”. The magnitude of the blast was equivalent to 10 to 15 kilotons of TNT — like that of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War II. H.R. Sethna, Chairman of the Ind­ian Atomic Energy Commission, told a news conference today, “It was a plutonium device,” and the “plutonium required for the explosion was produced in India.” Sethna said the experiment, carried out at a depth of 330 feet, was successful.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Islamabad,] a Foreign Office spokesman said here tonight that the news of the underground nuclear explosion by India was a development which “cannot but be viewed with the degree of concern matching its magnitude by the whole world and more especially by India’s neighbours.” He said Prime Minister Bhutto held a meeting this evening with the officials concerned to review the repercussions of the nuclear explosion. Mr Bhutto would speak at Lahore on the subject tomorrow evening. However, … the spokesman said, the nuclear blast “does not come as a surprise to us. We have been repeatedly warning the United Nations. …”

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2024