Taliban suicide attack renews fears over safety of Pak nuke sites, personnel: NYT

Thursdays suicide attack on a bus carrying officials of a nuclear establishment in Pakistans Rawalpindi city has once again raised questions over Islamabads claims that nuclear facilities in the country are safe and guarded well enough to counter the Talibans increasingly bold assaults against the countrys military complex.

New York, July 5 : Thursday's suicide attack on a bus carrying officials of a nuclear establishment in Pakistan's Rawalpindi city has once again raised questions over Islamabad's claims that nuclear facilities in the country are safe and guarded well enough to counter the Taliban's increasingly bold assaults against the country's military complex.

Immediately after the attack, in which one person was killed and several others grievously wounded, the government denied reports that the bus was carrying officials from nuclear plant, but military experts believe that it was apparently an attempt to avoid further embarrassment, The New York Times reports.

"It showed that their intelligence is current. It was a deliberate strike. They are trying to give a hint that they can strike the personnel who are working for the nuclear facilities," said Talat Masood, a retired general and a military analyst.

It was claimed that the workers aboard the bus were from the Kahuta Research Laboratories, where weapons-grade uranium is produced, and no high-level official or scientist was traveling in that bus.

It may be noted that the laboratory was once run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, who himself has been accused of nuclear proliferation, the report said.

While the government has repeatedly been denying reports that the ill fated bus was carrying officials from one of Pakistan's nuclear lab, officials at the attack site said that some of the injured persons would be treated at a hospital run by the nuclear labs, which again puts cold water on Islamabad's claims, the report added.

ANI