Friday, September 7, 2012

Heavy forces deployed at Pak nuclear facility after Taliban threat

Map of Punjab with Dera Ghazi Khan District hi...
Map of Punjab with Dera Ghazi Khan District highlighted (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Pakistan Army and Punjab Police have deployed heavy forces at one of Pakistan's largest nuclear facilities in Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan), following 'serious' security threats from the Pakistani Taliban.

Sources in the military and Punjab Police said the nature of threat at the nuclear installation is 'serious,' with an 80 percent chance of occurrence.

"DG Khan houses one of the largest nuclear facilities in the country, and has faced the first-ever serious security threat from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)," The Express Tribune quoted a high-ranking military officer, as saying.

Besides the deployment inside and around the nuclear installation, three divisions in South Punjab have also been asked to launch a crackdown against banned outfits, sources said.

According to an official who works at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, a key military and civilian fuel cycle site is located 40 kilometres from DG Khan. The site comprises uranium milling and mining operations, and a uranium hexaflouride conversion plant.

The Inter-Services Intelligence reportedly intercepted a telephone call from the TTP, wherein they were said to have been finalising their strategy for attacks on nuclear installations in DG Khan, sources said.

According to sources, the caller said that three to four vehicles carrying suicide bombers could strike the nuclear facilities at any time. Sources said that, according to precedents, threats intercepted via phone calls often materialised in the next 72 hours.

Sources said that a heavy contingent of military from the Multan cantonment has also reached the site and beefed up the inner cordon of the security. Military has also been deployed near the border with Balochistan. (ANI)

from AfghanistanNews
Thursday 6th September, 2012

Enhanced by Zemanta

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Search this blog