Pak hands over 3 N-scientists to US
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has handed over three retired nuclear scientists accused of having links with Osama bin Laden to US authorities for investigations, media reports said Tuesday.
Among those handed over is Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, Pakistan's former top nuclear scientist. Mahmood and two of his retired colleagues -- former chief engineer of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Abdul Majeed and former PAEC scientist Mirza Yousaf -- have been handed over to a joint team of FBI and CIA officials for further investigations, the Pakistan Observer reported.
Quoting credible diplomatic and official sources, the daily said Mahmood was questioned by Pakistani intelligence agencies for alleged links with the Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden. He was released on October 26 after being "cleared" by security agencies, but was again picked up from his home by security agencies on the night of October 28.
Quoting sources close to Mahmood's family, the paper said the scientist returned home in a precarious state of mental and physical health. During the time he spent with his family, Mahmood reportedly appeared nervous, conspicuously quiet and displayed signs of extreme stress.
"He did not talk much. Throughout the two and a half days at home he was constantly watched and nobody was allowed to meet him", the sources said.
Before leaving home on October 28, Mahmood told his family members that if they did not hear from him in a few days, they must deem him dead, the paper said, adding he has even left behind a will advising his family how to share his property.
Mahmood, who resigned from PAEC in protest when the Nawaz Sharif government considered signing the CTBT, later founded an NGO `Ummah Reconstruction' to carry out welfare activities in Afghanistan.
US and British intelligence agencies allege Mahmood and his NGO were directly linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida terrorist network. They claim Mahmood's team was trying to develop nuclear technology for bin Laden.
In a flurry of efforts to plan for a post-Taliban Afghanistan, US President Bush will meet Pakistani President Musharraf at the opening of the UN General Assembly on November 10, a day after holding talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, US officials said Monday.
While in New York, Bush will host a dinner for Musharraf, the White House said as the US President waived the last sanctions against Pakistan, clearing the way for a fresh infusion of financial aid to the key ally in the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
Bush signed into law on Saturday a bill that authorizes him to waive sanctions against Pakistan through fiscal year 2003, press secretary Ari Fleischer announced in a brief statement. The sanctions were imposed after Musharraf seized power in a military coup in October 12, 1999. Last month, Bush already waived sanctions imposed on Islamabad in the wake of its 1998 nuclear tests.
In a highly visible dividend for Musharraf's "unstinted" support to the anti-terrorism campaign, US is also expected to provide much more help to Pakistan targeting its huge debts, offering economic aid and backing support from international financial institutions.
"All these programmes totalled up, you get well over one billion dollars from the US government. You can get several billion dollars coming from the international aid organisations," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The talks with Musharraf and Vajpayee, and other meetings Bush and Powell are scheduled to hold with world leaders, will focus heavily on the potential composition of a new government for Afghanistan. The UN increasingly is emerging as the forum for deciding such key political questions concerning Afghanistan, taking over from the US as the lead player.
In a statement the White House said: ``This meeting is an important step in President Bush's efforts to sustain a strong international coalition in the war against terrorism.''
"President Bush looks forward to discussing the anti-terrorism campaign, regional security matters, economic cooperation, human rights, the October 2002 Pakistani elections, and ways to further strengthen the relationship between the US and Pakistan," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"The president will continue to have close cooperation with Pakistan, to work with them as we together fight terrorism. It is a volatile region, of course, and the stability of the region is very important and that is always foremost in the minds of the planners, and of the people who are conducting the policies," he added.
Islamic clerics were meeting in the North West Frontier Province to decide whether to call off the blockade of the Karakoram highway by armed pro-Taliban men, even as tribesmen in the Pakistani border town of Chilas continued to hold an airstrip to protest government's support to US strikes in Afghanistan.
Tribal religious leaders met at Bisham in NWFP to discuss their future strategy. If the ulema decided not to lift the blockade, the security forces might launch a big operation to drive them away, media reports here said.
Security forces have already begun taking positions at strategic points with heavy arms to clear the highway, the News reported.
The administration has asked the residents of areas to vacate their homes and move to some safer places and many people in Bisham have vacated their homes, it said.
Reports from the area said the tribesmen themselves have geared up for a showdown as many armed men have taken up key position on the mountain slopes and planted landmines in other areas to prevent the security forces from coming in.
In Chilas, about 2000 protesters continued to occupy the airstrip. They have put barricades to prevent any planes from landing. Officials, however, sought to downplay it saying the airstrip has no importance as it was not used for the past 25 years. But in fact, it was used for emergency landing for civil and military aircraft.
Meanwhile, hundreds of armed jehadi tribesmen belonging to an organisation called Tanzem Nifaz-e-Shariat-i-Muhammadi were waiting at the border for a signal from their chief to cross over into Afghanistan, reports here said.
Muhammidi chief Sufi Muhammad is holding talks with the governor of the Taliban-held Kunar province to discuss modalities for joining the Taliban to fight against the US, the reports said.
The Taliban has asked its supporters in Pakistan to wait until the US sends its ground forces.
(TNN& Agencies)
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