SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2001
Pak confirms nuclear scientists being questioned
ISLAMABAD: The government confirmed on Friday that it has taken into custody and is questioning two leading nuclear scientists with pro-Taliban sympathies.
Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, a spokesman for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said the pair was being interrogated about whether they had ties with Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's Taliban militia.
He said they had been charged with nothing and would probably be released within days. He said the questioning was part of a wider, more general investigation of organizations and people who have worked with or in Afghanistan.
Sultan Bashiru-Din Mehmood, a pioneer member of Pakistan's nuclear program, is the first nuclear scientist detained since Pakistan began efforts to obtain nuclear technology in the early 1970s.
The Interior Ministry identified the other detained scientist as Abdul Majid, who worked with Mehmood for years at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
They were taken into custody Tuesday by intelligence agents in the eastern city of Lahore.
Mehmood and his friends, most of them scientists and engineers, have been working on rehabilitation projects in war-ravaged Afghanistan. Mehmood's family insists he is loyal to Pakistan and not involved in anything untoward.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said the scientists in custody had been neither arrested nor detained but were simply being questioned.
He said they drew attention for contacting a nongovernmental organization, or NGO, working "to help the Afghans with charity work and projects in the welfare area."
"We are at present looking into the credentials of all NGOs that have worked inside Afghanistan," Khan said Friday afternoon. "They were asked some questions."
Asked if they were suspected of passing nuclear secrets to Afghanistan, Khan said, "Absolutely not. There is neither suspicion, nor was the situation related to that."
Foreign nations worry about political unrest in Pakistan because the country, like its neighbor and rival, India, is a nuclear power. Some say uncertainty in the government could threaten the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
Musharraf has drawn the wrath of Islamic militants for his decision to support the United States in its fight against terrorism and its airstrikes on Afghanistan, which began Oct. 7. Some have advocated his overthrow. He insists Pakistan's nuclear weapons are in secure hands. ( AP ) Copyright © 2001 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.