'Pak deploys force at nuke facility following Taliban threat'

Pakistani authorities have deployed large contingents of soldiers and policemen at one of the country's largest nuclear facilities in Dera Ghazi Khan following "serious" threats from the local Taliban, a media report said today.

Besides the deployment inside and around the nuclear installation, three army divisions in the southern part of Punjab have been asked to launch a crackdown against banned groups, The Express Tribune reported, quoting its sources.

This could be the first ever security threat to a nuclear facility in Pakistan and the army and security forces are taking no risks, the report said.

The daily quoted sources in the military and Punjab Police as saying that the nature of threat at the nuclear installation is "serious," with an 80 per cent chance of occurrence.

The ISI reportedly intercepted a telephone call from the Pakistani Taliban, during which members of the banned group were heard "finalising their strategy for attacks on nuclear installations in Dera Ghazi Khan," the paper said.

"Dera Ghazi Khan houses one of the largest nuclear facilities in the country and has faced the first ever serious security threat from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan," an unnamed high-ranking military officer serving at the installation was quoted as saying.

According to an official who works at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, a key military and civilian fuel cycle site is located 40 km from Dera Ghazi Khan.

The site comprises uranium milling and mining operations and a uranium hexaflouride conversion plant.

According to the telephone call intercepted by the ISI, three to four vehicles carrying suicide bombers were about to enter Dera Ghazi Khan and could strike the nuclear facilities at any time.

Sources told the daily that, according to precedents, threats intercepted via phone calls often materialised within 72 hours. Direct threats via phone or letters often do not materialise, the sources said.

Dera Ghazi Khan district police chief Chaudhry Saleem confirmed the threat and said that police had received instructions from the military officer in charge at the nuclear installation to beef up security around the facility as much as possible.

The Pakistani Taliban started sending threats to the installation after the attack on Kamra airbase on August 16, Saleem said.