ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Possibility of a nuclear war between Pakistan and India can not be ruled out, given the animosities between the two countries and frequent skirmishes on an unsettled border.
This was said by two members of Italian-based Landau Network, Prof Paolo Cotta Ramusino and Prof Maurizio Maretllini, during a panel discussion at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute on Thursday.
The event was moderated by Dr. Nayyer, a peace activist. Others who participated in the discussion included Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Mr. Inayetullah, and Dr. Butt.
The two professors have come to Pakistan for consultations on disarmament and international security environmental problems including energy and water security issues.
In their opinion, the Kashmir imbroglio can trigger a nuclear war in the region. They said after the terrorist attacks in the United States and the ongoing Afghan conflict, concerns were raised that terrorist groups had acquired weapons of mass destruction.
They maintained that Pakistan had a unique position in the context of global stability for bordering Afghanistan and having scientists capable of manufacturing nuclear as well as conventional weapons.
Italy, they said, had established an arms control centre under the aegis of its foreign affairs ministry. They said during their current visit here they would collect ideas and elements necessary to draft an independent report on the present risks of nuclear proliferation.
The two professors added that they were also gathering data on nuclear risks from Pakistan’s point of view.
Dr. Ramusino maintained that no illicit traffic of nuclear material had been detected in Pakistan and the country’s nuclear set-up was in safe hands.
Asked whether Israel possessed atomic weapons, he confirmed that it had 25 nuclear warheads, which it would, probably, not use against Palestine given the absence of any buffer zone between the two states.
At this stage, Prof Martellini drew the participants’ attention towards the danger from Russia’s nuclear complex where the risk, according to him, was very high. He said he was trying to minimmize these dangers in Russia as well as in North Korea.
He said nuclear risk could be brought down gradually if the path of sharing technical knowledge was adopted. It was possible for nations to sit down and discuss ways of risk reduction.
When a discussant commented that in the post-September 11 scenario, neither India or Pakistan could be persuaded to sign the CTBT and the NPT, Prof Ramusino said, in its present mood, the US was not inclined to take any logical steps, but it could be pressurized to sign the CTBT if India and Pakistan had ratified the treaty.
To a question whether the US attacked Afghanistan to gain control of the Central Asian oil reserves, Prof Martellini said when American oil conglomerates were asked to fund research to study this possibility, they did not agree to the proposal.—Jonaid Iqbal