Pakistan rejects reports about attack on nuke sites

October 13th, 2009 KARACHI - The revelation that five of the ten assailants of the GHQ attack were Punjabi jihadists has exposed the deadly nexus between the Pak-Taliban and Punjabi extremists. Now the danger for Pakistan also comes from extremists from its heartland Punjab province, who have forged a network with the Taliban in north-west fringe, The Telegraph reports.

October 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The audacious terror strike on the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi has once again raised concerns about the safety of nuclear establishments in that country, and experts believe that it may be only a matter of time when terrorists could target nuke installations with the same tactics and intensity. A professor at Britain's Bradford University and an expert on Pakistan's nuclear weapons, Shaun Gregory, said though severely bruised in its own back yard, the Pakistan Army is the only determining factor that stands between the nuclear weapons and terrorist organizations such as the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

October 11th, 2009 LONDON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the ghastly terror attack on the Pakistan Army General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi has underlined the terror threat facing Pakistan. Clinton, who is on a five day visit to London, told mediapersons here that efforts being taken to root out extremism from Pakistan were 'very important' as the country continues to reel under the threat, The News reports.

September 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - : Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has once again rejected reports regarding the presence of private US security firm Blackwater inside the country. "Blackwater does not engage in any activity in Pakistan.

September 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has urged US President Barack Obama to spell out clearly that the US Air Force will shoot down Israeli jets if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities via Iraqi airspace. "We are not exactly impotent little babies.

September 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has officially expressed apprehensions over the possibility of about India planning new nuclear tests based on the unsubstantiated conjecture of a domestic scientist. Addressing a weekly briefing here, Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said there are reports that India is preparing to conduct new nuclear tests.

September 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rejected reports that it has enhanced its nuclear capabilities and has considerably increased the number of its nuclear warheads from 60 to around 70-90. Interacting with media persons after a meeting with Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi termed the reports 'speculative'.

August 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rejected reports about purchase of submarines from France. Briefing Senate's Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production, Defence Production Secretary, Israr Ghumman said an evaluation committee formed by the Naval Headquarters has recommended purchase of German submarines.

August 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Interior Advisor Rehman Malik has dislodged apprehensions regarding the stationing of US Marines in the Islamabad embassy, saying such an exercise is not part of US' expansion plans. Talking to media persons here, Malik rejected reports that Washington was planning a surge in its Islamabad embassy by sending scores of officials there including Marines.

July 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reliable sources have said that Indian and Israeli special services units in collaboration with the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ) -a terrorist organisation- are preparing an attack on one of Pakistan's strategic installation in order to achieve multiple goals. Well-trained TTP members, around 750, will take part in this attack.

July 5th, 2009 NEW YORK - 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.

June 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rejected media reports that the money being provided to Islamabad by the United States as humanitarian aid is being diverted towards its nuclear programme. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said such reports were baseless and were an effort to malign the country's image.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen's fears of Pakistan rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal are being proved right by satellite images of two nuclear sites. According to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US based arms control institute, commercial satellite images of Pakistan's two nuclear sites in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rawalpindi shows Islamabad expanding its nuclear assets secretly.

May 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Three security personnel were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a check post in northwestern Pakistan, TV reports said Saturday. The incident took place in the Khawazakhela area of Swat.

February 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Monday rejected the Indian allegations of its links with the Nov 26 Mumbai terror strike but said it will take the probe into the attack to its logical conclusion. 'Pakistan will try its best to take the Mumbai attack probe to its fruition, but at this stage the Indian allegations are not proving helpful,' The News quoted a foreign office spokesman as saying.