In continuation of my previous columns on the same subject, here follow three interesting events that are not common knowledge. I had mentioned earlier that both Gen Naqvi and Col Faruqui had doubted Munir’s loyalty. Gen Zia himself had warned me to be wary and I was not to discuss any important or confidential matters with him.
The event discussed here was told to us by our foreign minister, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, after his return from a trip to the USA. The same incident was also told to Mr Zahid Malik by the Foreign Secretary, Niaz A Naik, and included in Mr Malik’s book ‘Dr AQ Khan and the Islamic Bomb’ (1992).
Sahbizada Yaqub was in Washington with Foreign Secretary George Schultz and they were discussing matters of mutual interest. He had his team members with him. During the course of the discussions Schultz suddenly changed the topic and started talking about our nuclear programme. He threatened to stop all aid to Pakistan if we did not restrict our nuclear programme.
Yaqub tried to defend our stance and said that our programme was for peaceful purposes only. A senior official of the CIA retorted that he should not insult their intelligence as they had all details of our programme. They even had a mock-up of our nuclear device, he said. They then asked Yaqub to follow them through the corridor to another room. The officer removed a cloth that covered a table and Yaqub saw a design of a plant on it. He said that that was our Kahuta Plant.
He then went to the next table and removed a cloth from what looked like a sphere in two parts with cables, etc. and told Yaqub that it was a model of our nuclear weapon. Yaqub feigned ignorance, even though he realised it looked like what he had so often seen in Kahuta. He told them that he was not a technical man or a scientist and could not say anything about it. But if you say that is what it is, then let it be so.
Mr Schultz said that he could not fool him. They had irrefutable proof. When they left the room and walked down the corridor towards Schultz’ office, Yaqub’s sixth sense told him to look over his shoulder. He got the shock of his life when he saw a renowned Pakistani scientist coming out of the adjacent room and going straight into the room they had just left. He instantly understood the whole game. Information had been passed on to the Americans.
The second event – an important one – took place after some time in Kahuta. After ERL (Engineering Research Laboratories) had been established, I asked Gen Faiz Ali Chishti, Commander 10th Corps, Rawalpindi, to give me a good officer to look after our security matters. He sent Col Abdul Rahman, an extremely competent, efficient officer.
After having explained to him what I wanted him to take care of, he hired many observers and informants around Kahuta. One day a “shepherd” returned from a routine inspection and sat down on a medium-sized stone to rest. He thought that the stone looked a bit different and used his small axe to chip off a small piece. The stone was easily cut and underneath he could see copper. He immediately reported the matter to a subedar who, in turn, informed Col Rahman. The stone was taken to the laboratories and put in a safe place.
I was informed and told them not to do anything until the next morning after I had inspected it. Next morning, after having ascertained that it did not contain any explosives, we dismantled it. The outside layer, about 4 inches thick, consisted of resin with sand from the local area. Inside was an aluminium box in two parts screwed together. Upon removing the screws we saw a wonder of technology – a long-lasting battery, antenna, neutron counters, an air-analyser and a recording/transmitter set.
This sophisticated equipment could analyse air samples to find the concentration of enriched or natural uranium hexafluoride, neutrons (from cold and hot tests), could store this information and, on command, could transmit it in a single pulse.
It must have cost millions of dollars. It had definitely been put there at night by a Pakistani agent driving to Kahuta Town. I conveyed details of the “find” to Gen Zia and Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who immediately came to see it. They highly commended the work of Col Rahman and his staff.
A few days later the notorious US ambassador, Dean Hinton, came to see Gen Zia and again harped on our nuclear programme. He boasted that the Americans knew everything about our work. On hearing that, Gen Zia said that if they were relying on that spy stone for their information, it wouldn’t do them much good as it had meanwhile been dismantled and was now non-functional. The Ambassador, visibly shaken, soon departed.
Just a few weeks earlier the US defence attache had taken aerial photos of the buildings at Kahuta and Dean Hinton had gone to the president and asked what type of facilities they were. Gen Zia did not even bother to look at the photos. He only remarked that the US had violated diplomatic norms and if any plane (it was a UN plane that used to fly to Kashmir) flew over Kahuta in future, it would be shot down.
He later conveyed these orders to the Air defence command stationed at Kahuta which had anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles.
With time, news of our efforts to acquire nuclear weapons filtered through to the west and they all undertook espionage efforts. The British sent two of their most notorious journalists, Mark Tully, who could speak Urdu, and Chris Sherwell. Sherwell was tasked to cover me. He used to roam around where we lived on his motor cycle.
One night Col Rahman’s people caught him snooping, had him thoroughly thrashed and registered a case of female molestation against him. After his release some time later both he and Tully were deported. Before this episode, Tully had once tried to embarrass Ghulam Ishaq Khan by asking him how much was reserved for Kahuta.
GIK just smiled and quoted from Ghalib: “Magas ko bagh men jaane na dijeo; Keh nahaq khaun perwane ka hoga” (Don’t let the bee into the garden otherwise the poor moths will lose their lives.) Tully was baffled and asked other journalists what Khan Saheb had meant. By the time he found out the meaning of the verse, the press conference was over and Ghulam Ishaq Khan had left.
Next week two more interesting and memorable events will be talked about, after which I will tell you more about my colleagues and ‘unsung heroes’.
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