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India is more worried about Ghauri than Pak bomb: Khan

India is more worried about Pakistan's Ghauri missile than its nuclear bomb, claims that country's top nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Dr Khan, architect of Pakistan's nuclear programme, said Indian cities, from Bangalore to Calcutta, come within the range of Ghauri missile.

''We can hit any Indian city in 15 minutes time. We can hit Indian cities many times,'' he said while speaking at a function organised in his honour by the Karachi University Alumni Association last evening. Dr Khan is a former student of the university.

He said the Ghauri missile, which was launched from Jhelum, covered about 1,100 km in 9 minutes 58 seconds to hit its target at Noukundi in Baluchistan.

''We completed the long-range missile in three to four years time. There was no assistance or guidance from outside. The achievement is only through hard work,'' Dr Khan said.

He said the government trusted him and his colleagues and provided them all facilities.

Dr Khan told the gathering that Pakistan has had a nuclear capability since 1984. ''We would have conducted nuclear tests in 1985 but the consensus was that tests at that juncture would lead to problems.''

UNI

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