Pune, Sep. 2 : Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on Wednesday criticized Pakistan for stockpiling nuclear weapons in the name of protection, and said the country is going beyond the degree of deterrence.

“There is a difference between having a degree of deterrence which is required for one''s own protection, and going beyond that degree of deterrence. If news reports of them (Pakistan) having 70-90 atomic bombs are correct then I think they are going well beyond the so-called requirement of deterrence even, that is something which is of concern to all of us,” General Kapoor told reporters here.

On Tuesday, reports of concern expressed by top US defence experts on Pakistan''s secret nuclear expansion has emerged.

In an article published in the latest issue of ‘Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’, Robert S Norris and Hans Kristensen had claimed that Pakistan''s nuclear stockpile has jumped to an estimated 70-90 warheads from a previous figure of 60.

"A new nuclear-capable ballistic missile is being readied for deployment, and two nuclear capable cruise missiles are under development. Two new plutonium production reactors and a second chemical separation facility also are under construction," Norris and Kristensen wrote.

Norris is a Senior Research Associate at the Natural Resources Defense Council while Kristensen is Director, Nuclear Information Project at Federation of American Scientists.

"It is equally troublesome to guess what its future plans might be," the article says.

The report comes amid concerns expressed by the US over illegal modification by Pakistan of US-made Harpoon anti-ship missile, a weapon that could target India. (ANI)