Lahore, July 9(ANI): Lieutenant General (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Khan has categorically rebutted the allegations regarding nuclear sell-off by Pakistan's military officials to North Korea.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear bomb programme, said that North Korea bribed top military officials in Islamabad to obtain access to sensitive nuclear technology in the late 1990s, The Washington Post reported earlier this week.
Former Pakistan Army chief Jehangir Karamat and Lieutenant General Zulfiqar Khan were named in a document released by AQ Khan, which the scientist said was a copy of a North Korean official's 'secret' July 15, 1998 letter that spells out details of the clandestine deal.
"Before making any comments on the substance of the article, I must emphasize that the whole story has not an iota of truth but a fabrication of a mischievous mind. It is now a well known and admitted fact that this by itself is a full fledged subject meriting separate treatment," Zulfiqar told the APP.
He said that this letter is absolutely void of authenticity and credibility because it is not on any letter head, bonafides of the signature/signing person are not known, and it mentions a combined and co-ordinated operation in Pakistan by the CIA, the South Korean Intelligence and the ISI, which is incomprehensible and mind-boggling.
"The reference about myself in the so-called letter from North Korea does not exist in the eleven page account given by Dr A Q Khan to Mr Henderson as referred to by the Washington Post," Zulfiqar pointed out.
In response to The Washington Post's queries, he pointed out that during his tenure at the General Headquarters (GHQ), neither any contract was concluded with North Korea by the GHQ, nor was there any dispute between the two.
The deal commonly referred to was an agreement signed between the two governments of Pakistan and North Korea, the Dawn reports.
However, it was concluded much before he came to the GHQ. It is public knowledge that an extensive and exhaustive inquiry was held into the allegations of nuclear proliferation, and numerous people were thoroughly questioned and interrogated in this regard. (ANI)
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