Pakistan may allow surrogate Taliban to nuke India: Expert

NEW DELHI: A US non-proliferation expert has said that Pakistan could allow surrogate Taliban to use its nuclear weapons against India in the case of an escalation of tension over Kashmir.

The head of the US Commission on the Prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism Bob Graham told the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on nuclear terrorism that Pakistan could use the surrogate Taliban to do its ``dirty work’’.

“If something broke out in Kashmir that reignited the vitriol between India and Pakistan, that could be an incident that could cause someone to make the decision,” he said, adding, “(The Pakistanis may say) We don’t want to use these weapons, but we’re going to let our surrogate Taliban have access to these weapons and they’ll do our dirty work.”

He further maintained that there was a need to develop some procedures to prevent such a scenario. “I think one of our recommendations was to work with India and Pakistan to develop some fail-safe procedures,” Mr Graham said responding to questions from lawmakers concerned about the safety and security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.

He also took the example of the precautions taken by the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War ranging from a hotline to a whole protocol. He, however, maintained there was none between India and Pakistan.

“none of that exists between India and Pakistan”, he said: “I have felt that this may be an area in which the US and Russia together, since we developed these protocols for our own benefit and the world’s benefit, might work together with India and Pakistan to try to get them to develop.”

Mr Graham further said it was encouraging that India and China have started to develop fail-safe procedures in the last month.

He, however, said there was nothing between India and Pakistan. “But there’s almost nothing that has been done in a similar vein between the real adversaries, which are India and Pakistan,” he said.

India and Pakistan do have a mechanism to inform each other of the exact location of their nuclear installations on the first day of every year.