One explosion took place in a mall, while the other destroyed a bus carrying army servicemen. According to some reports, there were nuclear inspectors among the victims.
What point are the terrorists' leaders trying to make by choosing army servicemen as their target? Firstly, this is a serious challenge to the authorities. Secondly, they cannot but think about the country's nuclear weapons, which exert an almost magnetic attraction on the extremists.
Pakistan's current nuclear potential is not insignificant - about 40 weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them. Nuclear-armed Pakistan certainly poses a threat, though the likelihood of a nuclear conflict with other countries remains very small, as in this case Pakistan would most likely be wiped from the face of the Earth.
"It would be interesting to analyze whether power in Pakistan could be seized by an extremist regime, which would prefer nuclear jihad to sensible policy," said Russian expert Alexander Koldobsky. Reassuringly, the answer is a resolute "no" for at least two reasons. Firstly, the extremists' leaders are very cautious about their own security - while encouraging suicide bombers, they don't rush to put jihad belts on themselves; secondly, they would have little to gain from such a jihad.
The extremists are also restrained by other factors. Pakistan has a well-trained and modern army. Armed force can well prevent the extremists from coming to power; it will certainly not allow the radical clergy to interfere with big-time politics, especially when it comes to nuclear weapons.
The army is quite resolute in suppressing all manifestations of extremism. But the explosions by the walls of a military township, which took the lives of army servicemen, show there is nothing the terrorists will not target.
Serious worries about Pakistan's nuclear status certainly exist, if not over the threat of nuclear conflict, then about the physical and technical aspects of its nuclear arsenal. Could nuclear weapons be stolen in Pakistan? Could there be an unauthorized nuclear explosion? Experts cannot give an unequivocal answer to these questions because there is no verifiable information about the rules of storage and servicing of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.
Safe storage of the nuclear arsenal, which rules out any unsanctioned access, is a hard and fast rule for any nuclear state. "In industrialized countries, the nuclear arsenal is literally stuffed with security systems, including the most sophisticated activation codes and means of irreversibly blocking the detonation system in the event of unsanctioned interference. They rule out any chance of using stolen nuclear weapons or dismantling them to receive fissionable material," explained Koldobsky. "Otherwise, nuclear weapons would be tempting to terrorists."
Pakistan does not have the comprehensive system to ensure the level of safety of nuclear weapons that exists in established nuclear powers. Such systems of security require huge funds to develop and can only be tested by time, over decades. Modern security systems are unthinkable without the use of high technologies in different fields of science and production. There is no guarantee that Pakistan's scientific and technical infrastructure is at this level.
"Terrorists may steal Pakistan's relatively simple nuclear ammunition (based on highly-enriched uranium), extract the uranium and use it in a home-made nuclear device," said the Russian expert. "Therefore we should not be surprised if one day Pakistani radicals, Islamists or terrorists lay their hands on Pakistani nuclear weapons."
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
