ISLAMABAD, April 4 Kyodo Top Paki...

ISLAMABAD, April 4 Kyodo

Top Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan has claimed Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal that could obliterate major Indian cities ''three times over'' an Islamabad newspaper reported Friday.

''Pakistan has number of bomb today, which could obliterate major Indian cities three times over...we can desolate Bombay and New Delhi in five minutes,'' the Daily Nawa-e-Waqt quot Khan as telling a cluster in Karachi.

The statement according to Khan, who is considered the father of Pakistan's ''Islamic bomb'' followed a statement by dint of Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha upon Wednesday that India could launch a preemptive strike against Pakistan.

at all times since carrying out tit-for-tat nuclear proofs in May 1998, the pair India and Pakistan have declared they will shut up to a policy of minimum nuclear deterrence however have kept the international community guessing about what they consider ''minimum deterrence''

Pakistan has maintained it needinesss a ratio of one to three against India in conventional arms and analysts believe it would like to have the same ratio in nuclear weapons.

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