No radiation leak or release from Pakistan nuclear facility: IAEA
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New Delhi: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that ‘there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan’ after India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terror camps in the neighbouring country, The Indian Express reported.
The Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog’s Incident and Emergency Centre responded to The Indian Express’s question on whether nuclear leak had taken place during the conflict last week.
‘We are aware of the reports you are referring to. Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan,’ an IAEA spokesperson reportedly said.
The IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre, set up in 2005, oversees coordination of international assistance in response to radiation incidents and emergencies, according to the report.
When asked about the reports of radiation leak, US Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas Pigott at a State Department press briefing said on May 13 that ‘I have nothing to preview on that at this time’.
India’s DG Air Operations, Air Marshal A K Bharti, on Monday said that India had not hit any target in Kirana Hills in Pakistan.
When the specific question was put to him, Air Marshal Bharti said ‘Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installations. We did not know about it. We have not hit Kirana Hills. I did not brief in my briefing yesterday’.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said on Monday that India’s military action against terror camps in Pakistan was ‘entirely in the conventional domain’, adding ‘India has a firm stance that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail or allow cross-border terrorism to be conducted invoking it’.
During Operation Sindoor, India targeted Mushaf air base in Sargodha which is one of Pakistan’s biggest airbases near Kirana Hills.
The Sargodha air base, where F-16 fighter jets were operated, is said to be Pakistan’s strategic place.
