Benazir asked Khan to give Iran n-know-how: report

LONDON - Late former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto had asked the country’s now-disgraced nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan to provide nuclear weapon know-how to Iran, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

Khan had made the revelation in a four-page letter to his wife Henny, the Sunday Times reported.

The letter says: “Probably with the blessings of BB (Benazir Bhutto, who became prime minister in 1988) and (a now-retired general) General Imtiaz (Benazir’s defence adviser, now dead) asked me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the Iranians.”

The letter dated Dec 10, 2003 also makes revelations about Chinese involvement in Pakistans nuclear programme and lists some of the raw materials for the nuclear weapon making process supplied by Beijing, the report said.

“The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50 kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tonnes of UF6 and 5 tonnes of UF6,” it quoted Khan as writing in the letter.

On Pakistans involvement with the North Korean nuclear programme, the letter says: “(A now-retired general) took $3 million through me from the North Koreans and asked me to give some drawings and machines.”

The newspaper report said a copy of the letter was destroyed by Khans daughter Dina on his instructions after Khan was pressurised by Pakistans intelligence agency ISI but journalist Simon Henderson managed to get hold of another copy.