We bought 200 NKorean missiles to fight Kargil war: Khan

Pakistan's nuclear scientist A Q Khan has said that Sri Lankan Muslims based in Dubai were suppliers of nuclear material and equipments not only to Pakistan but also to Iran and Libya.

'Be it Libya, Iran, or Pakistan, the same suppliers were responsible for providing the material through the same third party in Dubai,' Khan has revealed in an interview to a Pakistani news channel.

'It was a company with which we had established links when we could not receive the material from Europe. They were Sri Lankan Muslims,' Khan said in his interview in Urdu, aired in Karachi on August 31.

The Directorate of National Intelligence's Open Source Centre translated the interview into English, which has not been made public yet. However, a copy of it was obtained by the Secrecy News of the Federation of American Students.

Giving an interesting insight into acquiring of nuclear technology by Iran, he said, 'The Iranian officials would meet (suppliers) them in Dubai. We had told the Iranians that the suppliers were very reliable."

Noting that Iran was interested in acquiring nuclear technology, Khan said, 'Since Iran was an important Muslim country, we wished Iran to acquire this technology. Western countries pressured us unfairly.'

'If Iran succeeds in acquiring nuclear technology, we will be a strong bloc in the region to counter international pressure. Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power. We had advised Iran to contact the suppliers and purchase equipment from them.'

Denying that Pakistan did not transfer any nuclear technology to North Korea in exchange of the missile technology, Khan, however, refrained from making any comment on the accusation that he transferred nuclear technology to North Korea. He did concede though that he went to North Korea twice in 1994 and 1999.

'In 1999, Gen Musharraf sent me along with Gen Iftikhar, who was the then chief of Air Defense Command. We were fighting India at Kargil, and we were in dire need of anti-aircraft missiles. Musharraf said we could purchase the missiles from North Korea. We went to North Korea and purchased 200 missiles from them.'

He said a North Korean team visited the Kahuta plant during the same period, as the missile deal was taking place. It was no secret, he argued, adding everyone knew about it.

'They would stay at a guest house in the vicinity of Kahuta plant, because we did not have any other nuclear facility and our missiles were also being manufactured there. We did not spend any additional amount on the missile programme,' he said.

'The expense that was incurred on the missile program was that of the construction of prefabricated shades, which we would use in those missiles, and purchase of a few machines.'

'The North Korean engineers would visit our director generals in their departments to observe different operations. But nuclear technology cannot be learned by visiting a nuclear site and observing a few machines,' he said.