Pakistan rejects Indian media reports claiming ‘seizure of possible radioactive material’

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has rejected the Indian media reports claiming the “seizure of possible radioactive material” by the Indian port authorities on shipping containers of a commercial vessel loaded from the Karachi Port.

Responding to questions from the press about the issue, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said on Saturday that we have noted the reports in the Indian media about the “seizure of possible radioactive material” by the Indian port authorities at the Mundra Port on containers loaded on a Shanghai bound commercial vessel from the Karachi Port.

In this regard, the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant authorities have informed that these were “Empty Containers” being returned to China which were earlier used for the transportation of fuel from China to Karachi for K-2 and K-3 Nuclear Power Plants.

Both K-2 and K-3 Nuclear Power Plants and fuel used in these plants are under the IAEA safeguards. The Containers were “Empty” and the Cargo was correctly declared as Non-Hazardous in the shipping documents, he said.

The Spokesperson said that the reporting by the Indian media about the “seizure of possible radioactive material” is factually incorrect, baseless, laughable and a usual ploy of the Indian media to malign Pakistan and mislead the international community.

Asim Iftikhar said that the fake reporting by the Indian media is indicative of a malafide intent to twist procedural customs issues to bring into disrepute IAEA safeguarded nuclear power program.