‘No quake damage to nuke installations’

ISLAMABAD—Chief spokesman of Pakistan Army Major General Shaukat Sultan on Sunday said that by the Grace of Allah, the Oct 8 earthquake that ravaged country’s north has spared all the sensitive nuclear installations.
Nuclear installations are safe and in excellent working condition and even a stronger quake cannot damage them, other defense sources told reporters.
Shaukat Sultan said: “The report suggesting losses to the nuclear installations are malicious, absurd and totally baseless”.
Press Trust of India on Nov 20 carried a news item claiming that Pakistani nuclear facilities and storage sites in the Northern Areas have suffered 15 to 20 per cent damage in the recent mega quake and the local populace faces the risk of contamination.
PTI further said that the local population faces the risk of contamination, but a curfew has been imposed and they are being actively prevented by the authorities to leave the area.
There is 15 to 20 per cent damage to Pakistani nuclear facilities and storage sites in the Northern Areas, especially in Skardu and Chitral, and that missile silos (Military installation consisting of an underground structure where ballistic missiles can be stored and fired) had developed cracks and storage facilities had taken a hit. Pakistan government turned away international relief teams “because of the serious damage to the nuclear facilities in the Northern Areas,” it further claimed. The report said Pakistan had not allowed Indian Army relief work or IAF supply drops besides withdrawing consent for Israeli assistance fearing infiltration by Mossad agents “who would destroy the atomic establishments”. “Since the epicenter is likely to be seismically active for another two years, they expressed fear of further collapse of the nuclear establishments,” PTI said. “To prevent leak of this massive nuclear destruction, Pakistan bottled up the local population by imposing curfew and did not permit international inspection of the disaster-hit areas,” it added. However defense sources here said that Pakistan has permitted all the countries that wanted to participate in the relief work except for India for obvious reasons.—PR