Device details sought

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 8

Device details sought

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi 1 India has pressed the United States for an urgent ( inquiry into reports that the (

' American Central Intelligence Agency planted a nuclear-powered device in the Indian Himalayas and i then lost it in an avalanche. The Indian Foreign Secre--1 tary (Mr Jagat Mehta) summoned the American Ambassador (Dr Robert Goheen) i and told him it was essential s for India to know as soon as [possible what hazards were involved if the reports were ! true, an Indian Foreign : Office spokesman said. Howard Kohn, an American investigative reporter, told a New York press con-

ference this week that the plutonium-powered device, planted in 1965 to spy on China’s atomic-weapons 'development, could some

• day contaminate the Ganges i River and jeopardise the i lives of “maybe millions” of I Indians. Dr Goheen assured Mr • Mehta that the State Department was looking into it and - India would be informed as I soon as the facts were I known. > The American mountain- ! eers said to have planted the t device would have needed i Indian permission for the climb, but official sources ■ said India would probably , not have known what equip- • ment they carried.