Disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has said that allegations he passed on nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea are false. In a rare interview since he was put under a virtual house arrest, Khan said he had been made a ‘scapegoat’ and he had made his 2004 confession in the wider interest of the country.
Khan was put under house arrest after he confessed to using Pakistan as the hub of a large proliferation network.
“I think the confession was my mistake,” he told DawnNews TV channel on Thursday.
Khan alleged that he has been ‘betrayed by his friends’ who had promised that nothing would happen to him and he would be able to live a respectable life.
He said he had been given a written confessional statement to read. “I should not have read the written statement. I should have spoken in my own words and changed things,” he said.
He said pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senator S.M. Zafar had assured him that no harm would come to him after the confession.
“I was assured that I would be a free man and be allowed to go anywhere I want,” he said.
In response to a question, the 72-year-old Khan said: “I am an innocent man, but I don’t want to indulge in any controversy.”
The scientist made his first public appearance last week after a four-year detention when he visited the Academy of Sciences amid tight security.
The government is reported to have relaxed restrictions on him and allowed him to meet his friends.
Khan was arrested on 31 Jan, 2004, under the Security Act for allegedly transferring nuclear technology and centrifuges to other countries.
When asked if he had been involved in leaking nuclear secrets to any other country, Dr Khan said he was not a part of any illegal or unauthorised deal in any way
We believe you. Yeah.
On being asked if he was willing to speak to officials of US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency, he said: “Why should we. We are an independent country, we have not violated any international law, we are not signatory to the NPT, I am a free man, we have no obligation, then why should I agree to that?”
Khan termed the nuclear test conducted in 1998 ‘a good move’ under the circumstances and said credit for it was due to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
“If he had not done it, it might have encouraged India to do some misadventure. There was a general consensus to go for the nuclear test, the whole nation wanted it and it was done properly.”
He said that by gaining nuclear capability, the country had become free of the fear of a war and 500,000 Indian troops on the border did not dare attack it.
“We have a safe and good command and control system. Nobody can take away any nuclear weapon from Pakistan,” he said.