Pak may soon have world's third largest nuke stockpile: Report

In an article written for the www.military.com website, Joseph V Micallef, a best-selling military history and world affairs author and a keynote speaker, warns that if Islamabad continues in this vein, there is every possibility of nuclear device or devices falling into the hands of militant jihadist organisations, both in Pakistan and in other parts of the world.

In his article, Micallef says, "Pakistan's past ties to militant jihadist groups like the Afghan Taliban, Tehreek-e-Jihad Islami, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hizbul Mujahideen, to name a few, and the emergence of al-Qaida affiliated Ansar Ghawzat-Ul-Hind, have added an additional element of conflict into Indian-Pakistani relations."

"They have also led to a significant deterioration" in bilateral ties between Pakistan and the United States, he adds.

He says this conflict between Pakistan and India must be seen in a larger context - expanded to a "larger rivalry between China and India in Asia and the Indian Ocean basin."

"The military intervention by the United States and its allies to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the role of both India and Pakistan in that conflict, have added a further layer of complexity between the two countries," Micallef maintains.

Micallef suggests that what concerns him most is that Pakistan continues to engage in a nuclear arms build-up, which it has been doing clandestinely and illicitly for the past 48 years, and that these arms could be accessed by rogue elements, both in Pakistan and

abroad.

Between 1971 and 2016, Islamabad has been developing its own nuclear arsenal, "both plutonium and enriched uranium-based weapons."