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Once the go-ahead was received, the challenging assignment was undertaken in all earnest. Two task forces were constituted, one for each shaft site. Task Force ‘Blue Fox’ consisted of 418 Field Company, supplemented by a platoon of 109 Engineer Regiment under Lieutenant Ashok Srivastava. 358 Field Company constituted Task Force ‘Sand Grouse’. It was reinforced by a platoon of 419 Field Company under Captain NPS Chauhan. Maj S Jagannathan and I were the two Task Force Commanders.
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Pokhran II finally, took place under Operation Shakti in 1998. A total of five tests with weapon grade plutonium were conducted – three on 11 May and two on 13 May. The tests included a 45-kiloton fusion bomb (also called hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb), a 15-kiloton fission bomb (atomic bomb) and three experimental sub-atomic devices of 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2 kiloton respectively.
The PM also remembered the exemplary leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying he “showed outstanding political courage and statesmanship.”
The legacy of nuclear testing is “nothing but destruction,” and in a world of rising tensions, “our collective security depends” on bringing a global treaty into force that bans nuclear explosions, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
