Father of Pak nukes leaks secrets

Islamabad, Sep 21: In a shocking revelation, Abdul Qadeer Khan who is known as the father of Pakistan"s nuclear weapons programme admitted that he leaked nuke secrets to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya on the dictation of the Pakistani government and military but was later blamed for it, says a media report.

The humiliated 74-year-old scientist disclosed, what has long been suspected, in a 'secret' letter to to his Dutch wife Henny which he wrote after his arrest in 2003.

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A Sunday Times report that was published on Sunday, Sep 20 gave the details of the letter and describes that the letter written on Dec 10, 2003 was written in haste and claimed that the contents have never been revealed before.

'The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us,'' Khan's letter said.

''Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand,'' he tells his wife, adding, ''They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.''

Speaking on Iran in his four page letter, the scientist who is also known as the maestro of the world"s largest nuclear black market says, "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."

On China, the letter reads, "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tonnes of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%)." (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)"

The letter goes on to talk about the country"s nexus with the controversial nuclear programmes of Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Oneindia News