Take cognisance of nuclear world mart of A Q Khan: Congress

New Delhi, April 12 (PTI) With the Nuclear Security
Summit all set to begin in Washington, Congress Monday told
the international community to take cognisance of the "nuclear
world mart" of Pakistani scientist A Q Khan and described it
as a challenge to the world order.
"We do hope the World community will take cognisance
of the A Q Khan's nuclear world mart, which constituted
greatest breach to international security. Unfortunately six
years have passed since Khan's nuclear network came to the
fore but the whole truth is yet to be explained," Party
spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.
He said that the network posed a challenge not only to
regional security but also to the world order, adding, it
remains to be resolved whether the nuclear world mart of Khan
is closed now or the activities of this network are still
continuing under a new regime.
The Congress' reaction has come on a day when Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will join leaders of 46 other
countries in Washington to discus mechanisms to strengthen
global initiatives for securing nuclear material and
installations.
The two day Summit (April 12-13) is taking place amidst
increasing apprehensions and concerns about the possibility of
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and material falling into the hands
of terrorists.
Tewari also chose the occasion to emphasise India's
total commitment to universal nuclear disarmament and
referred to the international agreements signed by former
Indian Prime Ministers late Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi.
With a particular mention to Pokharan I, the first
nuclear bomb testing by India in 1974 during Indira Gandhi's
regime, Tewari said that the then Prime Minister
simultaneously laid the foundation for a robust
non-proliferation regime, "which culminated into Indo-US
nuclear agreement and other such agreements".
Recalling the contribution by successive generations of
Congress leaders to the "cause of nuclear disarmament and
non-proliferation", he said Rajiv Gandhi had unveiled a
comprehensive plan for universal disarmament, which proposed
complete nuclear disarmament of the world by 2010.
Tewari also disagreed with suggestions that Congress
is denying that Pokharan II, which happened during the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule in 1998, also had a
place in history. PTI