Pakistan Fears of India’s Rising Atomic Arsenal

A report was published in the United States in July according to which Pakistan is boosting its capabilities to produce atomic weapons and that the number of Pakistan's atomic weapons has reached 90, which was 50 or 60 a few years ago.
The report also accused Pakistan of installing a heavy water reactor on Khushab that would give Pakistan enough plutonium to produce 40 to 50 atomic weapons every year. The report also revealed that once this reactor is installed, Pakistan's capability to produce atomic weapons would rise by 20 percent. Many other things were mentioned in this report, which was published from Washington but it is not our focus to go into their details.

Biased Propaganda of West
This is not a new thing for Pakistan. Ever since its nuclear program was launched, reports like these have been published in the United States, the Jewish and Indian media to misguide the international community. The Indian Government and the media expressed their usual concerns when this report was published in July. General Deepak Kapoor, the Indian Army chief, expressed his concerns over Pakistan's rising atomic capability in a statement and appealed to the international community to take notice of it. In fact, India is trying to divert the world's attention toward Pakistan's atomic program in the cover of the traditional and biased propaganda of the West, so that no notice is taken of its own atomic program.
JK Sinha, former director of the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has disclosed that India is capable of producing 50 atomic weapons in a year. In an interview published in the famous Indian defense magazine the Indian Defense Review, he told that six of India's reactors were exempted from the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) concerns and examinations and that the IAEA has no authority over them. Sinha further wrote that the nuclear technology transfer deal signed between India and the United States in 2008 proved to be a great support as it granted India permission from the United States to keep six of its nuclear reactors free from all sorts of intrusion from the IAEA. The atomic substance acquired from these reactors has the tendency to produce 50 atomic weapons every year.

Indo-US Nuclear Deal
He further wrote that in this agreement the United States assured India that it would provide India with nuclear fuel on a regular basis. The United States also agreed to ensure that India has the permission to acquire atomic fuel from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). This agreement will assist India in acquiring atomic fuel from the United States and the NSG for its civil nuclear reactors. Moreover, India will be able to get weapon grade plutonium from six nuclear reactors, which the IAEA will not be able to examine. This is how India will be capable of easily producing 50 atomic weapons every year.
These six Indian reactors, which are away from the reach of the IAEA, are capable of producing 130 kg weapon grade plutonium each year. He further explained that 3 to 5 kg of plutonium 239 can easily produce an atom bomb, which will be powerful enough to cause as much destruction as caused by the bombs that the United States used on the Japanese cities Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945. Sinha also revealed that India is working under cover to make its atomic weapons more destructive and vicious and for this purpose India's atomic reactors are working hard to produce fissile materials so that the preparation of more and more atomic weapons can be made possible. All of India's fast breeder reactors are the driving force behind the preparation of atomic weapons. Fast breeder reactors also play a leading role in India's power generation department.
These revelations made by Sinha are an illustration of India's hypocrisy as well as the two-facedness of the United States and India. The United States, on one hand, is concerned over the spread of atomic weapons and technology throughout the world. On the other, it is making sure that India has access to atomic material and fuel required to produce atomic weapons. It is also acting as a guarantor to ensure that India has access to atomic fuel from other sources. America has refused to sign any such agreement with Pakistan, but at the same time transferred atomic technology and other information to India. No words are strong enough to condemn such deceitful actions.
What could be a bigger example of the US hypocritical approach that it signed the Nuclear Civil Technology Transfer Agreement with India in spite of knowing that India has refused to sign the CTBT and NPT, and is still standing firm on its stance? Even if the United States had decided to sign the Nuclear Civil Technology Transfer Agreement, it should have forced India to sign these international agreements prior to signing the deal. In case of a refusal from India, the United States should have pulled out from this agreement.
The evidence of the US admiration and inclination toward India is that it has provided India with the access to the NSG. It was on the US behest that this group lifted a 34-year-old ban from India that has enabled India to acquire its atomic fuel and other sensitive information from this group. It must be remembered that the NSG cannot provide assistance to any country that has not signed the NPT and CTBT. However, in this particular case, special waiver was given to India on the US behest. Iran is facing restrictions on the US behest and the European countries in spite of signing and reaffirming the CTBT. Therefore, the NSG cannot provide any assistance to Iran.

Preparation of Atomic Weapons
India has always kept its atomic program and the preparation of atomic weapons a secret. This can be judged from the fact that when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of India, she used to regularly visit all meetings relating to India's atomic program or the preparation of atomic weapons. She had issued standing instructions that the topics that were discussed during these meetings will not be put in writing or recorded and that only verbal orders will be given. In other words, the minutes of these meetings were not prepared.
Once Indira Gandhi saw a secretary of the federal government writing down important points during one of these meetings. She asked him to leave the room without taking the notebook. She kept the notebook with her and continued with the meeting. Later, she issued some instructions for this secretary. The very next day he was transferred to a remote and underdeveloped area of India where he recognized the severe mistake he had made. It was only after the end of Indira Gandhi's era that this secretary was transferred back to New Delhi.

India's Secret Approach
It was due to India's secret approach towards its atomic program that the intelligence agencies of all countries including the United States figured out their failure when India conducted its first atomic blast in May 1974 at Pokhran in Rajasthan as they were all unaware of India's preparations.
In short, the Nuclear Civil Technology Transfer Agreement between India and the United States will allow India to realize its long-standing vision of preparing nuclear weapons. The biggest obstruction standing in its way was the shortage of atomic fuel and plutonium, which has been taken out. Now, India is free to produce atomic weapons.