Qualla: Chagai-II https://qualla.com/chagai-ii en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Chagai-II https://qualla.com/chagai-ii Chagai-II: Introduction https://qualla.com/chagai-ii/ Photo credit Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Public domain. Where a small hillock once rose from the rolling Kharan Desert, there is now a crater. On May 30, 1998 -- two days after Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices beneath the granite of the Ras Koh Hills -- a single boosted fission weapon was lowered into an L-shaped horizontal shaft in this remote corner of Balochistan and fired. The blast yield measured 20 kilotons of TNT equivalent, confirmed by the Theoretical Physics Group and later corroborated by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan himself. Chagai-II, as the test was codenamed, completed Pakistan's entry into the nuclear club and remade the geopolitics of South Asia in a weekend.

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Image: Department of Defense, Department of Energy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/tmj3-chagai-ii-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Chagai-II: A Desert Chosen for Its Emptiness https://qualla.com/chagai-ii/ Photo credit Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Public domain. The search for a suitable test site began more than two decades before the weapon was ready. In 1976, nuclear physicist Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad and seismologist Dr. Ahsan Mubarak conducted a three-dimensional geological survey of the Kharan region, a desert valley squeezed between the R...

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Image: Department of Defense, Department of Energy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/tmj3-chagai-ii-a-desert-chosen-for-its-emptiness.mp3 0:06 2 full Chagai-II: Tunnels Beneath the Sand https://qualla.com/chagai-ii/ Photo credit Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Public domain. The Special Development Works division constructed what amounted to a hidden underground complex: 24 cold test sites, 46 short tunnels, and 35 subterranean accommodations for troops, command centers, and monitoring stations. The main test shaft stretched 300 meters in an L-shaped...

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Image: Department of Defense, Department of Energy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/tmj3-chagai-ii-tunnels-beneath-the-sand.mp3 0:06 3 full Chagai-II: Thirty-Six Hours Between Tests https://qualla.com/chagai-ii/ Photo credit Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Public domain. Chagai-II did not happen in isolation. On May 28, Pakistan had conducted Chagai-I -- five simultaneous detonations inside the Ras Koh granite mountains, a direct response to India's Pokhran-II tests earlier that month. The second test, two days later, used a different site and a ...

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Image: Department of Defense, Department of Energy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/tmj3-chagai-ii-thirty-six-hours-between-tests.mp3 0:06 4 full Chagai-II: A Crater Where a Hill Once Stood https://qualla.com/chagai-ii/ Photo credit Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Public domain. Today the Kharan test site is a place defined by absence. The hillock that marked ground zero is gone, replaced by a depression in the desert floor. The tunnels and monitoring stations remain buried beneath sand and silence. No monument marks the spot -- the desert itself serves ...

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Image: Department of Defense, Department of Energy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/m/j/3/chagai-ii-wp/tmj3-chagai-ii-a-crater-where-a-hill-once-stood.mp3 0:06 5 full