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As the world watches with bated breath the likely action the United States will take to 'smoke out' terrorist mastermind Osama bin laden and his Taleban hosts, fears that the hardened Afghan warriors would hit back with chemical and biological weapons are gaining ground.
An opinion poll on the CNN website stated on Wednesday that 73 per cent of the more than 50,000 people consider that the adversaries would use a chemical or a biological weapon.
Already media reports say satellite pictures of terrorist training camps outside Jalalabad in Afghanistan have showed dead animals on test ranges, which could indicate that experiments with various poisons may have been carried out.
The threat of hitting back with chemical agents is very high given the low technology involvement required to use a chemical agent to paralyse the opponent, says Rajiv Nayan, senior researcher at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
Even though chemical or biological agents have not been used yet, experts do not rule out the possibility of the Afghan militia possessing such arms.
According to Nayan, low level nerve agents were seized some time ago from militants in Kashmir, who have links with their counterparts in the region.
According to T Sreedhar, senior research fellow at IDSA, "There is a distinct possibility of the Taleban acquiring weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, biological and chemical" specially after they found themselves to be no match to the professional armies of India (Kargil) and Iran in August 1998, when Iran had mobilised its troops along the border following the killing of its diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif.
"In mid-2000, there were reports about British undercover agents striking a deal with a tribal chief in the North West Frontier Province to buy enriched uranium," he said.
According to Sreedhar, who specialises in Afghanistan affairs, there were also reports about retired Pakistani nuclear scientists subscribing to radical jehadi (holy war) ideology joining the Taleban.
The most important name cited then was that of Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood, who worked with the Pakistan atomic energy commission from 1963 to 1998 in various capacities, including as a director of the Kahuta Enrichment Project.
Mehmood took premature retirement in 1998 and floated an organisation called Ummat Tameer-e-Nau (reconstruction of Muslim ummah or community).
Sreedhar further quotes reports from the region to say that Congolese groups were trading in isotopes of Uranium 235 last year through conduits in Tanzania and Nigeria.
"Tanzania and Nigeria are significant in the Taleban context because Taleban chief Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden are known to have an excellent network in these countries," says Sreedhar.
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