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Youm-e-Takbeer is being celebrated today (Wednesday) with great patriotic fervor, commemorating Pakistan’s nuclear tests conducted on this day in 1998. Today is a public holiday.  On this historic day, Pakistan became the seventh nuclear power in the world and the first Muslim country to possess nuclear weapons in its defense arsenal.

The nuclear tests were carried out by a team of Pakistani scientists led by the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, and Dr. Samar Mubarakmand in the Ras Koh Hills of Chaghai District, Balochistan.

These tests symbolized the nation’s firm resolve to protect Pakistan’s territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty.

The milestone was achieved following the legendary statement by former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who vowed that they would “starve” but still turn Pakistan into a nuclear power.