Pakistan on Sunday junked as "rubbish" a report that elite US troops were ready to counter any move to hijack the country's nuclear arsenal and said it was "a figment of the imagination".
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the insinuations made in the report were baseless and Pakistan government had devised and implemented a foolproof safety and security regime for its nuclear arsenal and related materials.
"We are very much confident about our nuclear weapons capability and our custodial controls," Basit said.
He described the news report as "rubbish and a figment of the imagination" of the reporter.
The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that the US Army is training a crack unit to "seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants, possibly from inside the country's security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one".
Basit said certain lobbies in the West, particularly in the US, do not like Pakistan's status as a nuclear weapons state and were trying to undermine its nuclear programme.
"Such propagandist reports do not serve any purpose except to unnecessarily keep Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme in focus for no good reason," he said.
US officials had never expressed concern about Pakistan's nuclear arsenl during official meetings and had instead expressed confidence in the country's custodial controls, Basit said.
He also said Pakistan never wanted to make South Asia an atomic region or to take part in an arms race.
"Pakistan only wants to fortify its defence. Pakistan went nuclear in response to Indian threats and any wrong use of its nuclear arsenal is simply out of the question," he added.
