Mumbai Gas leakage - Pathetic Indian Expertise in Nukes

                                         By Zaheerul Hassan

July 14, 2010 again created panic and sounded alarm in Mumbai when apparently Chlorine Gas leakage occurred at 4 a.m and over 80 people were taken to the hospital in a critical condition. As per media, out of effected individuals the condition of six students is very critical. The leakage took placed from a cylinder near the Bombay Port Trust in Sewri area.  According to the reports "It’s a huge cylinder down below various other cylinders (from which the gas is leaking).  However, the signs of victims’ personals created doubt about the types of the gas in the locals. On the conditions of anonymity some of the renowned locals and businessman gave serious reservations and claimed that in fact  the leaked  cylinder was part of the consignment  that was  suppose to be transported to chemical industries which are world over known for production of biological and chemical weapons. The claim of locals could be true since as per page 24 of Section ? 1 of NBC Proliferation Challenges, Indian has already Acknowledged its chemical warfare program in 1997 and stated that related facilities would be open for inspection. India has a sizable chemical industry which could be source of dual-use chemicals for countries of proliferation concern. U.S. Department of Defense, Proliferation has also confirmed the facts in their various reports too.  

However, the signs on the skins and unconscious of effected individuals are quite closer to the symptoms cause as result of poison gases like phosgene, Mustered, Tear and Chlorine Gases. More over Customs authorities also stated that the cylinder under discussion is among various cylinders seized by custom authorities.  As per reports the custom official failed to satisfy the reporter of news agency when was asked about the type of gas filled in the cylinder. 

The Mumbai occurrence also created terror amongst the citizens because of unforgettable miseries of Bhopal Union Carbide Pesticide Plant, when over 8000 innocent people killed and more than 5000 suffered with serious injuries as a result of gas leakage in 1984. The affected individuals of Bhopal have still not been compensated and keep on crying for their rights in even in the highest courts.  The entire discussions confirm that Indian scientists and authorities are lacking expertise in handling sensitive and dangerous material related to nukes and gases.

Precisely, commenting the major incident in nukes pants, theft cases of enriched Uranium, murdering and harassing of nuclear staff by intelligence agency and leakage of gases are in on increase. Reportedly, because of poor safety and security arrangement on May 14 2010, another incident of poor radiation security green place radiation experts have identified eight hotspots in New Delhi Mayapuri area which have 5000 times the natural background radiation defined as safe by the department of atomic energy. In this incident one individual died and eleven others were injured. The nukes experts always have shown strong concern over Indian poor safety and nuke arrangements on the nuke plants and handlers.  In this reared New Delhi    never paid heed to IAEA concerns over nukes safety and security. Almost 160 cases of theft, loss and misplacement of radioactive source have been registered in the local police. Again recently a radiographer boarding a train in New Delhi carrying an industrial gamma radiography exposure device was stolen from him and never found. In April 2007 a radiography Camera stolen from Jadadishphir near Lucknow could not be found till to date. In November 2009, fifty five employees consumed radioactive material after titrated founded its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Nuclear plant in Karnataka. The leakage of 4-14 tones of heavy water from the pipes at madras atomic processing plant in Tamil Nadu. Six workers have been exposed to high doses of radioactive radiation.

Indian police found dead body of the nuclear scientist, Lokanathan Mahalingam from Kali River in Jun 2009. The scientist was in possession of highly sensitive / classified information. On 29 December 2009, a fire broke out at the BARC, killing two scientists identified as Umang Singh and Partha Bagga. Anantha Narayanan, a scientific working in the computer department of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam is missing since Feb 2010. A 48 year old Madhadevan lyer, scientist of the BARC was found dead in his official residence in Feb 2010.

Mr Thirumala Prasad Thenka, a scientist of Raja Ramanna Centre for Advance Technology (RRCAT) committed suicide by hanging himself on 12 Apr 2010. On 28 April 2010, Delhi Police traces Cobalt ? 60 to DU Chemistry Department.

In short, such incidents indicate that these scientists were involved in some criminal acts such as nuclear materials thefts / proliferation. The possibilities of killing by terrorist / extremists groups after getting nuclear secrets can not be ruled out. But same time I would like to express that Nuke Watchdog IAEA has not yet carried out detailed inspection of Indian Nuclear plants.  The opinion of locals, customs officer, businessmen referred reposts in the article and   todays gas leaking incident of Mumbai   do confirm   that India is preparing chemical and biological weapons. World community should ask India to stop further expansion of their nuclear and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programme.  Pakistan should also discuss the matter of nuclear proliferation with Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna in ongoing SAARC Interior Ministers Conference at Islamabad.