PARIS: Interpol called on Wednesday for the arrest of WikiLeaks’ founder as the site’s release of secret US cables laid bare international concerns over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
France-based Interpol said it had alerted all member states to arrest Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden for “probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion”.
Assange’s mother said she did not want her son, who has denied the charges, hunted down. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called in US Ambassador Cameron Munter for talks on Wednesday as WikiLeaks’ steady release of 250,000 US cables sent shockwaves around the diplomatic community.
Islamabad reacted angrily to suggestions by US diplomats that its nuclear weapons could fall into terrorist hands. International fears over the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal “are misplaced and doubtless fall in the realm of condescension”, foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP.
“There has not been a single incident involving our fissile material, which clearly reflects how strong our controls and mechanisms are.” The anger stems from a 2009 cable in which then US ambassador Anne Patterson reportedly wrote that the possibility that someone working in government nuclear facilities “could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon” was a major concern.
