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Pakistan promises to match any Indian threat with ''vengeance''

A day after Pakistan matched India with five nuclear detonations, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub declared his nation a nuclear weapons state and vowed to retaliate to any attack from its neighbour with ''vengeance''

''We have an active programme... We have nuclear weapons, we are a nuclear power, '' Ayub told Associated Press."We have an advanced missiles programme.''

He also said Pakistan will arm its long-range Ghauri missile, which it test fired on April 6, with nuclear warheads.

''These missiles are capable of carrying both a conventional and nuclear warhead... But with a range of 1,500 km no military man would launch it with a conventional warhead... So that restricts the option to nuclear,'' he said.

There was no offer of a testing moratorium from Ayub, despite India's self-declared moratorium after its second round of nuclear tests on May 13. This seemed to lend some credibility to speculation that Pakistan may be planning another set of underground nuclear tests.

When quizzed about this prospect on CNN's Q& A programme at 0100 hours IST on Saturday, Khan said he had no idea if more nuclear tests were being planned. He said his ministry was not involved in the decision.

Ayub said Pakistan was on high alert on Wednesday -- the night before the tests -- fearing an attack by India on its nuclear installations was imminent.

Pakistan scrambled its air force, contacted the ambassadors representing the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and India's high commissioner to Pakistan.

''I didn't sleep all night... We were here waiting,'' Ayub, whose father Pakistan dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan launched a war against India in September 1965, said.

He said Pakistan had ''concrete evidence'' that India had armed several jet fighters with bombs that it was preparing to drop on Pakistan's nuclear facilities, three of which are within a 50 km radius of Islamabad.

On Friday Ayub said the threat from India has been reduced -- not because of the testing, but because India had lost the element of surprise.

Speaking on CNN's Q&A programme after Ayub, India's ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra dismissed Ayub's claim, saying the Pakistan government had not backed its allegation of an Indian attack with any evidence.

Ayub told CNN that Pakistan would be willing to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty "tomorrow" if India also signed the CTBT. The CTBT is the most direct route to an arms control regime on the South Asian subcontinent, he told AP.

Pakistan, he added, would be ready to accept either UN or US mediation in the region.

UNI, Rediff staff

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