There is a lot of concern being expressed these days about the possibility that ISIS might be interested in committing nuclear terrorism. There have been indications in the past several years that ISIS is trying to acquire nuclear materials which could be used to construct a dirty bomb.
Moldavia is a nexus for smuggling nuclear materials from Russia and other former members states of the Soviet Union. In a sting conducted several years ago, one of the men apprehended said that members of ISIS were in Moldavia trying to buy nuclear materials for a dirty bomb.
Some of the people involved in the Paris terrorist attack last November were making video surveillance tapes of a Belgian nuclear worker in Brussels. A couple of Belgians who worked on at a nuclear power plant traveled to Syria to join ISIS. One of them subsequently returned to Belgium. It is possible that ISIS was working on a plan to either steal nuclear materials for a dirty bomb or was planning to attack and sabotage a Belgian nuclear power plant and only changed their plans at the last minute because some of their people had been captured.
Pakistan is a nuclear power. It is estimated that they have at least a hundred and twenty nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them. The hostilities between Pakistan and India have led to war several times since the two countries were created in 1949. India also has nuclear weapons and it is feared that nuclear war could break out between Pakistan and India. Recently, Pakistan announced that they were going to create and distribute small tactical nuclear weapons to area along the Pakistan-India border.
Earlier this year, the director of Pakistan's intelligence agency said that hundreds of Pakistanis were going to Syria to join ISIS. He expressed concern about what these men might do if they returned to Pakistan. A terrorist network in Pakistan has recently been eradicated. It is possible that ISIS may try to obtain nuclear materials from Pakistan to use in the construction of dirty bombs. They might also just kidnap nuclear scientists from Pakistan and force them to help make dirty bombs with uranium from Syria and Iraq.
There is also a growing fear that militants sympathetic to ISIS might be able to steal Pakistani nuclear weapons. In recent years, militants have attacked supposedly secure military facilities in Pakistan. This suggests that they might be able to enter secured nuclear facilities where weapons are stored. On the other hand, Pakistani military officers with experience in nuclear weapons security claim that militants would not be able obtain nuclear weapons, safety mechanisms and trigger code words which are kept in separate locations. A former member of the Pakistani army has pointed out that Pakistan has never had any nuclear materials or nuclear weapons stolen.
Although there are over sixty military groups in northwest Pakistan, the number that are sympathetic to ISIS is relatively small. The estimated number of actual ISIS members is small. The Pakistani army has over seven hundred thousand men. Pakistani officials are confident that their nuclear arsenal is safe from ISIS.
Pakistani Army Emblem:
