LONDON, Nov 21: The Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU), a British think-tank, has come up with a scary thesis that in the current political turbulence the chances of nuclear assets falling into the hands of tribal militants have increased as most of them are located in the North and West of the country.

Releasing the salient features of the publication titled “The Security of Nuclear Weapons in Pakistan” on Wednesday, the PSRU said Islamabad had in place robust measures but each contained some weaknesses and many were being exacerbated by the present political turbulence in the country.

Authored by the PSRU chief, Professor Shaun Gregory, the paper claimed that to assure the security of its nuclear weapons against the Indian threat, Pakistan established many of its nuclear weapons sites to the country’s north and west of Pakistan, “but this had the unintended consequence of placing them close to areas which are presently dominated by Taliban and tribal militants groups.”

It further claimed that these tribal and Taliban militants were growing in confidence and in numbers and might launch an assault against a part of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons infrastructure.

“They may seek to take possession of nuclear weapons or components but they could also seek to create a radiological hazard by using explosives or fire to try to destroy the weapons,” the paper said.

The paper maintained that there existed growing antipathy in the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies to the West and growing sympathy for some extremist/terrorist groups.

This, it feared, raised the possibility that nuclear weapons security could be compromised by collusion either between renegade military personnel or between such personnel and extremists/terrorists.

Admitting that while the evidence was not available directly from Pakistan about the number of unreliable personnel it removes from nuclear weapons duties each year, the paper quoted from comparable data from the US suggesting a constant figure of 4-5% of individuals, who may be irrational or have mal-intent and therefore “this may mean that 1 in 25 of those in Pakistan with nuclear duties are unreliable at any one time, though not all these will constitute a threat to nuclear weapons security.”

“In the present context of political instability President Musharraf’s control may be weakening and Pakistan may become even more porous in leaking nuclear secrets,” asserted the paper and added “Musharraf is being disingenuous in arguing that the military has to run the country for nuclear weapons to be safe.”