New Delhi, March 12: after India admitted the accidental firing of a missile inside Pakistan, the National Security Adviser (NSA) of Pakistan Moeed Yusuf questioned New Delhi’s ability to handle sensitive technology, urging the world to consider whether the neighbouring nation was able to ensure the safety and security of its weapon systems, Dawn news reported.
“This raises serious questions about India’s ability to handle such sensitive technology,” he said, adding that the missile had travelled close to the path of international and domestic airlines and threatened the safety of civilians.
The NSA also called out the Indian authorities for not informing Pakistan immediately that an “inadvertent launch of a cruise missile had taken place”.
“In a nuclear environment, such callousness and ineptitude raises questions about the safety and security of Indian weapon systems,” he said, adding that already multiple incidents of uranium theft in India had been reported and its citizens “have even been arrested while smuggling uranium in the recent past”.
Yusuf said that Pakistan’s repeated calls urging the world to take notice of “India’s irresponsible behaviour” had been ignored.
This irresponsible behaviour of Delhi continued to pose a threat to regional stability, he said, Dawn reported.
“Given this incident (of March 9), and earlier ones, the world must consider whether India is able to ensure the safety and security of its nuclear and other high-end weapon systems,” the NSA said.
“The world must remove its blinders about Indian state’s behaviour within its country, its diplomatic direction, and its disregard for the need for peace and stability in its neighbourhood. The world must treat this incident with the urgency, sensitivity and (the) alarm it deserves.”
Yusuf also called for an investigation into the “real circumstances surrounding” the March 9 incident “to ascertain if this was an inadvertent launch or something more intentional” as “it is hard to believe anything this Indian government says.”
The NSA’s response to the incident is the latest to have come from Pakistan.
Besides calling for an explanation from Delhi and raising similar concerns as the NSA, the DG ISPR had said during Thursday’s press briefing that “Pakistan strongly protests this flagrant violation and cautions against recurrence of any such incident in the future”.
The Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad had summoned the Indian envoy to register Pakistan’s protest over the unprovoked violation of its airspace, saying such “irresponsible incidents” reflected the neighbouring country’s “disregard for air safety and callousness towards regional peace and stability”.
It had also called for a thorough and transparent investigation of the incident, the results of which should be shared with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had expressed concern over the incident, saying that the international community and aviation bodies should take notice.
He had said Pakistan would decide its next step after receiving India’s explanation, adding that envoys of P-5 countries (permanent members of the UN Security Council) would be called to the FO and briefed about the incident.