DND Report
Pakistan has demanded a thorough investigation of incidents of theft and illicit trafficking involving nuclear and radioactive material in India and called upon India to ensure the safety and security of its nuclear facilities and arsenal.
It is pertinent to mention that the US non-proliferation watchdog, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), nuclear security index, gave India the lowest ranking for its poor safety and security of nuclear material in its reports.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Thursday strongly condemns the remarks of Indian Defence Minister in which he tried to nuclearized Indian’s defeat in conventional warfare and Pakistan said effective defence and deterrence against Indian aggression through conventional means was enough to answer on May 10, 2025 when Pakistan’s conventional capabilities overpowered Indian air and ground forces.
It may be remembered that after licking the dust at the hands of Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Modi and his government are trying to nuclearize the situation by claiming Pakistan used “nuclear blackmail” for the ceasefire, although India demanded a ceasefire through the United States.
Pakistan, time again, raised alarms that IAEA and the international community should be worried about incidents of theft and sale of nuclear material in India, that had become the biggest black market of nuclear material. The recent incident was the recovery of a radioactive device reportedly stolen from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the arrest of five individuals from Dehradun, India, who also possessed a highly radioactive and toxic substance, Californium, worth US$ 100 million.
Three incidents of theft of Californium were also reported in 2021, suggesting the existence of a huge black market for sensitive, dual-use materials inside India. In May 2021, the illegal sale of six kilograms of Uranium was busted in the Indian state of Maharashtra. In June 2021, Pakistan raised the issue internationally, demanding IAEA look into the incident of theft and sale of nuclear material in the Indian black market. It is pertinent to mention that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 and the IAEA Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) make it binding on States to ensure stringent measures to prevent nuclear material from falling into the wrong hands.
In August 2021, NDTV India reported that the West Bengal Crime Investigation Department had arrested two persons for illegal possession of radioactive substances with an estimated worth of 4,250 crores. The Indian media raised alarm that recovery of huge radioactive substances from India generated possibilities that someone within India is (was) working on developing a Dirty Bomb. Indian News Channel said that acting on a tip-off from a person, the CID recovered the nuclear material. One of the four pieces seized was Californium.
India has a long history of such incidents.
November 1994: Meghalaya Police seized 2.5 kg of uranium from a gang of four smugglers in the Domiasiat region
June 1998: A federal politician was arrested near the West Bengal border with 100 kilograms of uranium.
July 1998: CBI unearthed a major racket in the theft of uranium in Tamil Nadu, with the seizure of over 8 kg of the nuclear material
May 2000: Mumbai Police seized 8.3 kg of uranium.
August 2001: West Bengal Police arrested 2 men with more than 200gm of semi-processed uranium
2003: A gang was caught in a village on the Bangladesh border with 225 grams of milled uranium.
December 2006: A container packed with radioactive material was stolen from a fortified research facility in eastern India.
February 2008: A Criminal gang was caught attempting to smuggle uranium, capable of being used in a primitive radiation-dispersal device, from one of India’s state-owned mines across the border to Nepal. The police seized 4 kg of uranium in Supaul district along the Indo-Nepal border.
December 2009: The Navi Mumbai Crime Branch arrested three people for illegal possession of 5 kg of depleted uranium.
2013: Guerrillas in northeast India illegally obtained uranium ore from a government-run milling complex in northeast India and strapped it to high explosives to make a crude bomb before being caught by police.
December 2016: Police seized almost 9 kg of depleted uranium in the Thane area of Maharashtra. India has a despicable nuclear safety and security record. Let’s turn a leaf from India’s nuclear history. In 2016, Indian agencies seized almost 9kg of depleted uranium in the same state of Maharashtra, where 7kg of radioactive material was caught in 2021.
India – Five arrested with 1kg of Uranium worth Rs 3 crore. On 6th May 2021, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested two men with 7 kg of natural uranium worth $2.9 million in Mumbai.
If India does not take the initiative in amending the safeguards agreement, the IAEA needs to review whether, in its current form, the agreement is consistent with the Agency’s obligations under its Statute. The international community has a shared responsibility, which is to stop illicit-nuclear trafficking, as such a dangerous material can be used to make a dirty bomb. India is a test case. It is a country that has seen a sharp rise in nuclear trafficking. The world must react before it’s too late.
