RAWALPINDI, 26 January 2004 — Hundreds of hard-liners rallied yesterday in support of Pakistani nuclear scientists detained on suspicion of having profited from selling nuclear technology to Iran, hailing them as “national heroes.”
Supporters of the religious coalition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal drove a truck stacked with megaphones through the center of Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad, bringing traffic to a halt. They held banners reading: “Stop terror against national heroes” and “Atomic power saved Pakistan.”
Speakers criticized President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government, saying it had caved in to foreign countries, including the United States, by leveling accusations against scientists who had helped produce the Muslim world’s first nuclear bomb as a deterrent against rival India.
“We will never accept the blame being leveled against the nuclear scientists,” said MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed. “The nuclear heroes made these nuclear weapons for us — that’s why India never dared to touch us.”
Eight scientists and administrators from the Khan Research Laboratories, a nuclear weapons facility named after its founder, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, are being held for questioning over nuclear proliferation allegations that surfaced following admissions made by Iran to the UN nuclear watchdog.
Pakistan’s government denies it authorized any transfers of weapons technology to other countries — including Iran, Libya or North Korea — but says individuals may have done so for their own profit.
An official familiar with KRL told AFP that Qadeer Khan and his KRL associates may have traded nuclear information with foreign brokers based in Dubai.
“Khan and the group was mostly responsible for bringing resources for Pakistan’s nuclear program from outside, particularly through a Dubai-based group of international brokers,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan declined to comment on the report, only saying that investigators were trying to determine “if some individuals had pursued personal financial gains.”
At the rally, Ahmed dismissed the report. “Even if Dr. Khan has millions of dollars in his accounts we don’t care ... he’s a national hero, we love him,” Ahmed told the crowd. Ahmed’s MMA, or United Action Forum, is a powerful coalition of religious parties that prospered in 2002 Parliamentary elections by opposing Musharraf’s support of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Khan has long been regarded as a national hero and the father of Pakistan’s program. He has not been detained during the “debriefings” of scientists, but has been questioned and is confined to Islamabad.
The son of an aide to Khan — Mohammed Farooq, a former KRL director general who was detained in late November — also addressed the demonstrators and appealed for them to keep supporting the scientists. “I don’t know where my father is. It’s been 55 days,” Asim Farooq said.
