The father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb and another member of his secretive team have emerged as the prime suspects in a government investigation into alleged sales of nuclear technology to Iran and Libya, intelligence officials said on Monday.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, who developed the bomb tested by Pakistan in 1998, was in effect under house arrest on Monday, while the second suspect, Mohammed Farooq, was being detained nearby, the officials told Reuters.
The investigation was launched in late November following allegations by the UN nuclear agency linking Pakistani technology to Iran’s fledgling nuclear programme.
”One or two people acted in an irresponsible manner for personal profit,” information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday. ”Money is involved in the matter. I am not naming any scientist.”
According to Ahmed, four scientists and three security officials were being questioned on Monday about the alleged sale of technology to Libya and Iran .
The government admitted last week that scientists could have sold Pakistan’s nuclear technology abroad, but denied any official involvement.
The intelligence officials told Reuters that the investigation had focused on two prime suspects.
”They are Qadeer and Farooq,” according to one of the officials, who requested anonymity, adding that Khan’s movements had been restricted.
Ahmed denied this, repeating the government line that although Khan was among those being investigated, he was not under arrest.
Political analysts have warned that charges against Khan could provoke public outrage in Pakistan, where he is considered a national hero.
But the interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, stepped up the pressure on Khan and his team yesterday by saying that anyone responsible for nuclear proliferation could not be considered a Pakistani patriot.
”There was a time when they used to call themselves heroes of Pakistan.
”But now the real face of some of these heroes is being exposed. The nation has the right to see their real faces because they have used Pakistan’s assets for individual gains.”
Asked whether Khan could face punishment, he replied: ”Anyone involved will be held responsible.”
Investigators have trawled through the scientists’ bank accounts, but Ahmed would not comment on a local media report that several million dollars had been found in the accounts of two of them.
Ahmed also noted that the vast majority of the 6 000 Pakistani scientists working on the country’s nuclear programme were not suspected of selling its secrets.
Farooq is director of procurement at the Khan Research Laboratories outside Islamabad, Pakistan’s main nuclear weapons laboratory, which was founded by Khan.
The investigation into his team began after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency released evidence to suggest Pakistan had shown Iran how to construct centrifuges to make enriched uranium.
President Pervez Musharraf said last week it appeared that some Pakistani scientists had been involved in proliferation for personal gain, but insisted there had been no government involvement.
He said violators faced stern action as ”enemies of the state”.
The intelligence officials said those found guilty of exporting nuclear technology could face charges of treason.
Western diplomats in Islamabad say Pakistani scientists may also have sold nuclear technology to North Korea.
Last week two Dutch ministers said there were ”indications” that North Korea and Libya had acquired nuclear technology developed by the British-Dutch-German consortium Urenco which Pakistan and Iran were known to have.
Khan worked for Urenco in the 1970s. After returning to Pakistan, he was sentenced in absentia by an Amsterdam court to four years’ jail for espionage, although the verdict was later overturned. – Guardian Unlimited Â