The Nuclear Shame: Indira Gandhis Veto Killed Covert India-Israel Plan To Bomb Pakistans Kahuta Reactor, Claims Ex-CIA Officer

He dubbed her decision a “shame”. He was speaking in an interview with news agency ANI, when he said that the operation was intended to halt Islamabad’s atomic ambitions.

Richard Barlow, who served as a counterproliferation officer in the CIA during Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear development, said he had heard about the plan in intelligence circles but was not directly involved. “I heard about it at some point. But I didn’t get my teeth into it because it never happened,” he added.

The comments came days after US President Donald Trump told CBS News’s 60 Minutes that while the United States has avoided nuclear testing for more than three decades, several countries, including Pakistan, continue to conduct underground nuclear trials.