Pakistan's nuke proliferation exposed by AQ Khan

Islamabad, Sep 20 (ANI): Father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Dr AQ Khan, has exposed the Pakistan Government over the nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya.

The expose came from a letter, which Khan had written to his wife Hendrina Khan in December 2003, in which he mentioned that all the activities were done on the orders of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take all the criticism that had followed.

"The b******* first used us and are now playing dirty games with us. If the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand. They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me," a news channel quoted Khan's letter, as saying.

"Probably with the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto, who became prime minister in 1988] and [a now-retired general]... General Imtiaz [Benazir's defence adviser, now dead] asked... me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians...The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the Iranians," The Times quoted from Khan's letter.

Earlier in January 2004, Khan had forcefully confessed to having been involved in a clandestine international network of nuclear weapons technology proliferation from Pakistan to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

And in an August 23, 2005, General Pervez Musharraf had confirmed that Khan had supplied gas centrifuges and gas centrifuge parts to North Korea and, possibly, an amount of uranium hexafluoride. (ANI)