Pakistani nuclear bomb father died aged 85

Khan, who had been taken to hospital with lung problems, had previously been hospitalized in August after testing positive for Covid-19, and his condition worsened on Sunday, Pakistani public television PTV reported.

Thousands of people attended a state funeral in honor of Khan at the Faisal Mosque in the Pakistani capital. Her body was carried by an honor guard, and political and military leaders attended the funeral service.

The flags have been half mast.

Abdul Qadeer Khan became a national hero in May 1998 when Pakistan officially joined the list of atomic military powers, thanks to tests carried out a few days after those of India, his eternal rival.

“I am deeply saddened by the death of Dr AQ Khan,” the Prime Minister said on Twitter. Imran Khan, who underlined “its crucial contribution to becoming a nuclear weapon state”.

“To the Pakistani people he was a national icon,” whose nuclear weapons program ensured Pakistan’s security against India, “a much more important aggressive nuclear neighbor,” he added.

His fellow scientist, Dr Samar Mubarakmand, said Khan was a national treasure who defied Western attempts to quell Pakistan’s nuclear program.

“It was unthinkable for the West for Pakistan to make any progress, but they ultimately had to recognize Dr Khan’s achievements in building the country’s nuclear weapons,” he said.

Khan, born April 1, 1936 in the Indian city of Bhopal, 11 years before the bloody partition of the British Empire that resulted in Pakistan and India in 1947, was in command of the country’s missile development program.

He graduated from the University of Karachi with a science degree in 1960 and completed his training in Berlin, the Netherlands and Belgium, where he obtained a doctorate in metallurgical engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven.

His main contribution to Pakistan’s nuclear program has been the design of centrifuges, which enriched uranium to bring it to a concentration rate suitable for the manufacture of weapons.

He was accused of stealing this technology in the Netherlands, while he was working there for the Urenco consortium. On his return to Pakistan, he approached the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and he offered him the technology for the nuclear weapons program itself.

Still mourning the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, which became BangladeshIn addition to India’s capture of 90,000 Pakistani troops, Bhutto accepted the offer and appointed him to head the national uranium enrichment program.

Since then, Pakistan has relentlessly pursued its nuclear weapons program alongside India.

Pakistan’s nuclear program and Khan’s involvement have long been the subject of accusations and criticism.

Khan has been accused by the United States of exchanging nuclear secrets with neighboring Iran and North Korea in the 1990s after Washington sanctioned Pakistan for its nuclear weapons program.

During 10 years of Soviet occupation of the neighbor Afghanistan (1979-1989), successive US presidents have certified that Pakistan was not developing nuclear weapons.

Certification was required under US law to authorize US aid to anti-Communist rebels across Pakistan.

But in 1990, just months after Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, Washington imposed sanctions on Pakistan that ended all aid to the country, including military and humanitarian aid.