Abdul Qadeer Khan : The legend of Pakistan and the maker of its nuclear bomb, who was assassinated by "Corona"
The Pakistanis consider Abdul Qadeer Khan an extraordinary nationalist figure, as they put him in the ranks of the great poet Muhammad Iqbal, the founder of the idea of creating Pakistan, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the project to establish the state.

Today, Sunday, October 10, 2021, Pakistani television announced the death of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the engineer of Pakistan's nuclear program, at the age of 85.
The Pakistanis consider Abdul Qadeer Khan a legend and an extraordinary national figure, as they put him in the ranks of the great poet Muhammad Iqbal, the founder of the idea of creating Pakistan, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the project to establish the state.
With him, Islamabad entered the club of nuclear states, and the construction of Pakistan's Kahuta nuclear reactor was completed in only 6 years, although it takes two decades in Western countries with well-established traditions in the field of nuclear industry.
Birth and upbringing
April 1, 1936: Abdul Qadeer Khan was born in Bhopal, India, during the British occupation and before the secession of Pakistan from India.
He grew up in a religious family, and his father, Abdul Ghafoor Khan, was a teacher who retired in 1935, and devoted himself to raising and caring for his family.
He is only younger than one sister out of 5 brothers and two sisters.
- Zulekha Begum Khan's mother was a pious lady who adhered to the five daily prayers and was proficient in Urdu and Persian, so Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan grew up religious and committed to his prayers.
Abdul Qadeer Khan graduated from Hamidiya Secondary School in Bhopal.
1952: He fled with his family to Pakistan after the partition (1948).
1957: His father died in Bhopal, as he did not immigrate with his sons to Pakistan.
1960: Graduated from Diyaram Jheit College of Science, University of Karachi.
He worked as an inspector for weights and measures, a second-class government job, but he resigned after that.
Refused to get a new government job in exchange for inviting the new director of work for food.
Immigration to Europe
- Abdul Qadeer immigrated abroad to study master's and doctoral degrees in Germany and Belgium, respectively.
He spent two years in training at the Technical University of Berlin.
He married Ms. Henny, a Dutch woman of African descent, who had met her before in Germany.
1967: He joined Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, where he obtained a master's degree.
1972: Received a doctorate in engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
After obtaining his doctorate, he worked as a senior metallurgist at the Dutch engineering company FDO, which at the time was closely linked to the Urenco organization interested in uranium enrichment.
The nuclear club
May 18, 1974: India detonated its first nuclear bomb. Khan, while in the Netherlands, began looking for a way to help his country acquire similar capabilities to its rival India.
August 1974: The then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto expressed interest in a letter Khan sent him offering him the idea of a Pakistani nuclear project to achieve a balance with India in the region.
1975: Bhutto summoned the engineer Abdul Qadeer from the Netherlands to assign him to head Pakistan's nuclear program.
Fall 1974: Khan begins secretly copying designs for centrifuges and compiling a list of companies that could provide Pakistan with technology to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
Mid-1975: Dutch security police monitor a meeting between Khan and a Pakistani diplomat suspected of seeking nuclear technology.
Dutch police said they believed they had enough evidence to arrest Khan, but after consulting with senior Dutch government officials and the CIA, they decided to keep him under surveillance in the hope of learning more about Pakistan's nuclear weapons smuggling network.
December 1975: Khan and his family leave the Netherlands for Pakistan.
1976: The program was launched by Abdul Qadeer, and he established engineering laboratories for research in the city of Kahuta, near the city of Rawalpindi.
The Khan network got its start with a few companies in Switzerland and Germany willing to take advantage of weak export controls.
Khan developed strong relationships with engineers and other experts in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Not long after that, Khan began manufacturing components in factories in Malaysia and South Africa, and used Dubai as a shipping hub.
economic sanctions against pakistan
April 6, 1979: US President Jimmy Carter imposed economic sanctions on Pakistan in an attempt to halt its nuclear progress. The Carter administration also used its influence to withhold loans from the World Bank for Pakistan and pressured France and others to stop selling nuclear materials to Islamabad.
1981: These laboratories were named "Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Research Laboratories" in appreciation of his research efforts.
- His strict secrecy helped him in the success of the Pakistani nuclear bomb project, and his relations with Western companies related to the field of enrichment and the construction of centrifuges helped him to buy what would help him to build his laboratories and develop his research.
1986: India mobilized its forces on the border with Pakistan, and Islamabad instructed a prominent social figure in it to point out in the press that his country possesses superior nuclear capabilities that are capable of military use. Then a public show trial was held for him, accusing him of leaking dangerous military secrets.
September 1986: Pakistan's first underground nuclear explosion occurred between September 18 and 21 of the same year.
"Father of the Islamic atomic bomb"
The press called him "the father of the Islamic atomic bomb", and the streets of Pakistani cities were filled with his pictures, especially with his charitable efforts such as establishing many schools, and his campaign to combat illiteracy.
The Netherlands filed a lawsuit against Abdul Qadeer Khan accusing him of stealing secret nuclear documents, which Khan denied and the Islamabad government refuted, and the charge was subsequently dropped by the Amsterdam High Court.
1987: Khan made his first contact with Iran to help build the first uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, Isfahan Province, central Iran.
1989: Khan and his network begin supplying nuclear technology to Iran's newly established program.
1993: Khan visited former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (assassinated in 2007) and asked her to take a side trip to North Korea during her official visit to China in 1994.
Khan told Bhutto that he wanted North Korea's help for a missile he was developing to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and Bhutto agreed to his request, wishing to improve its relationship with the Pakistani army.
During the mid-1990s, US intelligence noted that Khan made 13 trips to North Korea, most of which were carrying cargo on Pakistani military planes.
Khan handed over 2,000 components and parts to centrifuges to enrich uranium, a flow that continued until the mid-1990s.
leak nuclear secrets
October 2003: The Italian Coast Guard seized a cargo ship bound for Libya, containing equipment that can only be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, and announced that behind this was an international network moving in certain axes across the world, led by the nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
December 2003: Abdul Qadeer Khan and some Pakistani nuclear scientists are interrogated by the Pakistani security about a possible link between the nuclear programs in Pakistan and Iran, and the leaking of nuclear secrets to countries such as Libya and North Korea.
During the 1990s, the United States did not notice the smuggling operations conducted by Khan, and its investigations focused on the possibility of Russia providing nuclear secrets to Iran.
February 4, 2004: In the midst of that crisis, the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan appeared on television to admit leaking nuclear secrets to other countries, denying any responsibility for his country's government, and the Pakistani Cabinet later announced a pardon for Abdul Qadeer Khan in the light of solidarity. Popular with those who are seen locally as a national hero.
February 5, 2004: President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan, who is considered a national hero in Pakistan, and has since been placed under house arrest in Islamabad.
President Pervez Musharraf refused to allow the IAEA or anyone to meet Khan after his confession, and prevented him from leaving Pakistan for fear of being arrested and interrogated.
2005: In an interview with Japan's Kyodo Agency, Musharraf accused Khan of sending an unspecified number of centrifuges to North Korea, without indicating when the shipment would be sent.
Prostate cancer
August 22, 2006: Pakistani authorities announced that Khan had prostate cancer and was under treatment.
September 9, 2006: He underwent a lumpectomy at a Karachi hospital, and the doctors said the operation was successful.
February 2008: The CIA, with the help of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, persuaded the Swiss government to destroy a massive trove of digital documents and blueprints confiscated from three of Khan's associates in Switzerland.
This material included a roadmap for participants in the Khan network and an inventory of black market technology, including advanced weapons designs.
The CIA was trying to protect partners who had received $10 million for reporting on Khan near the end of his operations.
March 5, 2008: Khan was taken to Islamabad Hospital, suffering from hypotension and high temperature as a result of an infection.
March 9, 2008: Khan improved and was released from hospital.
- June 5, 2008: Khan retracted his previous admission of helping Iran and North Korea in launching their nuclear program, only noting that he had directed these countries to European companies that could provide them with the technology needed for nuclear projects, and that in 2004 he was under pressure that prompted him to admit that he had not perpetuates it.
Benazir Bhutto's assassination
July 4, 2008: Khan told the Associated Press and Japan's Kyodo News that North Korea received second-hand centrifuges from Pakistan in 2000 after President Musharraf took power, noting that the shipment was sent on a plane. North Korea under the watch of the Pakistani army.
Khan stated that President Musharraf was aware of everything that was happening and that he had a prominent role in the network of nuclear weapons proliferation and that he was just a scapegoat.
Khan confirmed the link between the assassination of "Benazir Bhutto" and her announcement of the opening of international investigations into the international mafia that runs the secret network for smuggling nuclear secrets internationally.
Khan said that he does not recognize the International Atomic Energy Agency and that he is not obligated to appear before it, and said that it is not an international agency, but an American-Zionist agency.
He also revealed that the parties behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto are also trying to assassinate him.
- July 5, 2008: The Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced that the nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's file was closed and that there was no need to reopen it.
February 6, 2009: Khan was released after 5 years under house arrest.
2009: Khan said - during a television interview - that the Soviet-Afghan war "has provided us with space to enhance our nuclear capabilities. Given American and European pressure on our program, it is correct to say that if the Afghan war had not happened at that time, we would not have been able to make the bomb in early as we did."
2013: The United States obtained conclusive evidence of Khan's activities after the U.S. Navy intercepted a ship carrying nuclear materials from one of Khan's factories bound for Libya.
Books and Awards
1981: Abdul Qadeer published the book "The Islamic Bomb" in English. He also published about 150 scientific papers in international scientific journals.
Abdul Qadeer Khan won 13 gold medals from different institutes and institutions.
1989: He was awarded the "Hilal Al-Imtiaz" Medal.
1996: He was awarded the "Nishan Al-Imtiaz", the highest civilian award granted by the State of Pakistan.
2003: Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology declared him a "distinguished graduate" in recognition of his "great services and valuable contributions to scientific research and its practical applications beneficial to humanity."
His death
Khan was admitted to the military hospital after being infected with the Corona virus, and then was transferred to his home after his health condition improved, but his condition suddenly deteriorated on the night of Sunday, October 10, 2021, and he died in a hospital in the capital, Islamabad.
Khan was admitted to the military hospital after being infected with the Corona virus, and then was transferred to his home after his health condition improved, but his condition suddenly deteriorated on the night of Sunday, October 10, 2021, and he died in a hospital in the capital, Islamabad.
ReplyDelete