A day after India and Pakistan expelled each other’s mission heads to hit a new low in ties, National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra made the startling disclosure that Pakistan was hiding its nuclear weapons in ‘‘tunnels and caves’’ in the Chagai hills of Baluchistan. It was at Chagai that Pakistan went nuclear in reponse to Indian N-tests in 1998. Speaking at the Munich security conference, Mishra said the reports of hidden Pakistan nuclear assets made India’s concerns even more obvious. ‘‘Persistent reports of the freelance activities of some Pakistani nuclear scientists only add to our disquiet.’’ He reminded participants that a ‘‘larger-than-life obsession’’ with Al Qaeda was leading to ‘‘inadequate political consultations and selective intelligence sharing on the global terrorist threat.’’ Pointing out that Pakistan was introducing religious extremist forces into the region’s polity, he warned that the focus on Al Qaeda was hindering the campaign against terrorism. The perpetrators of such cross-border terrorism, he said, were only different from those responsible for the September 11 attacks by their names and bank accounts ‘‘not in their ideology, objectives or sponsors.’’
