‘Not factual’: Pak denies uranium-tainted cargo discovered at London Airport was from Karachi

According to Pakistani officers, the cargo didn’t originate in Pakistan, as is being claimed by British media.

By Press Trust of India: Pakistan on Thursday rejected the reviews in British media {that a} uranium-tainted cargo package deal that landed at London’s Heathrow Airport final month originated from Karachi, saying the information is “not factual”.

The BBC reported on Wednesday that British counterterrorism police have been investigating after border officers seized cargo contaminated with uranium at Heathrow Airport final month.

The Sun newspaper, which first reported the information, mentioned the uranium got here from Pakistan, the report mentioned, including it was present in a cargo of scrap metallic.

Responding to the reviews, a prime Pakistani official mentioned they have been “not factual”, including that no info had been shared by the UK with Pakistan formally.

“No information to this effect has been shared with us officially. We are confident that the reports are not factual,” Foreign Office Spokes­individual Mumtaz Zahra was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper on Thursday.

According to Pakistani officers, the cargo didn’t originate in Pakistan, as is being claimed by British media, it mentioned.

It is learnt that the cargo package deal arrived at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 through Oman Air passenger flight WY 101, which arrived on the night of December 29.

The flight originated from Pakistan, the place UK officers consider the package deal was checked in as cargo, and had a stopover in Muscat, Oman.

ALSO READ | Police begins probe into uranium-tainted cargo at London’s Heathrow airport

Upon arrival, the package deal was detected by common airport scanners, which alerted Border Force officers to analyse the contents. The package deal contained scrap metallic and the uranium in query was “embedded into metal bars”.

The Sun newspaper reported that the package deal was being shipped to UK-based Iranian nationals, with different media shops saying it was shipped to a London-based enterprise owned by Iranians.

In the UK, the Metropolitan Police mentioned its counter-terrorism command unit was knowledgeable by Border Force officers after the package deal.

Speaking on the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee on Wednesday, Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met Police counter-terrorism command, mentioned that police will “follow every avenue” to search out out the circumstances wherein it arrived within the UK and its meant goal.

He mentioned there was no threat to public well being, and that the “consignments that had been identified included a very small amount of contaminated material”.

ALSO READ | Uranium present in water of 29 areas in Kanpur together with Chakeri, reveals IIT Kanpur analysis

Speaking to Sky News, former head of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, mentioned it was “a concern” that the fabric reached the UK all the way in which from Pakistan, the report mentioned.

He added, nonetheless, that regardless of the origin, the fabric “absolutely shouldn’t be on a commercial airliner”, it mentioned.

Uranium is a radioactive metallic present in rocks and is often used as gasoline for nuclear energy crops and reactors that energy naval ships and submarines. It might also be utilized in nuclear weapons.

ALSO READ | Most unsocially distanced in UK: Boris Johnson joked about Downing Street celebration amid Covid

Published On:

Jan 12, 2023