“Youm-e-Takbeer” is being marked with national pride and enthusiasm today (Wednesday), commemorating Pakistan’s nuclear tests conducted on this day in 1998. The day is observed as a public holiday across the country.
It was on this date that Pakistan emerged as the world’s seventh nuclear power and the first Muslim-majority country to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
The tests were successfully conducted by a team of Pakistani scientists, including Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear program, and Dr. Samar Mubarakmand, in the RasKoh mountain range of Chaghai, Balochistan.
These nuclear tests reflected Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to defending its territorial integrity, national independence, and sovereignty.
Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s iconic pledge—that Pakistanis would endure hardships but attain nuclear capability—was ultimately realized with this landmark achievement.
Despite intense international pressure, then Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif made the bold decision to conduct nuclear tests in response to India’s, effectively restoring the strategic balance in the region.
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