Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father of the Pakistani bomb” is dead. – Politics

The life of Abdul Qadeer Khan created a lot of potential for divisions, that much is certain. As a nuclear scientist and engineer, he served his country, Pakistan, for many years. And what came out of it polarized the world in many ways. This applies to the further spread of nuclear weapons as well as to the different perceptions associated with Khan’s career. Some consider him a folk hero, others a villain who ensured that highly dangerous nuclear technology fell into the wrong hands.

In his home country, Khan, who died at the age of 85 over the weekend, is honored as the chief developer of the national nuclear program; he is known as the “father of the Pakistani bomb”. This fits in with the logic of the powerful military, according to which nuclear weapons are irreplaceable in the defense of the Pakistani people. Nuclear weapons are considered the ultimate means to oppose the big warring brother India.

“Deeply saddened by the death of Dr AQ Khan” said Prime Minister Imran Khan via Twitter. “He was loved by our nation,” wrote the head of government of the deceased, “because he made a decisive contribution to making us a nuclear weapon state.”

Now, however, Khan’s importance would not be adequately described if one limited the view to his homeland. Because what made him so controversial was the accusation that he not only turned Pakistan into a nuclear state, but also turned to other countries with his knowledge and secret contacts: Libya, Iran, North Korea. In the words of ex-CIA chief George Tenet, Khan was “at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden”. Western intelligence services evaluated information that Khan was repeatedly involved in the smuggling of nuclear technology.

He later withdrew a confession on television

In 2004, Khan even admitted on television that he had supplied other countries with nuclear technology; his appearance was like a repentant confession in which he asked his own nation for forgiveness. A few years later, however, he took it back and claimed that he had only announced everything under pressure from the then military ruler Pervez Musharraf. And a court in Islamabad finally released him from state house arrest in 2009.

Even if much remains nebulous, experts have gathered numerous clues that show that Khan’s secret network supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea. When Libya was negotiating the end of its nuclear program, the Americans came across traces that led to Khan.

Born in Bhopal in 1936, he experienced the bloody division of British India as a child. He moved with his family to the west, where the new state of Pakistan was formed. He studied in Karachi and Berlin before completing his studies in Belgium and the Netherlands. When Pakistan was defeated in the war against India in 1971 and thus lost the eastern part of its territory (which has since been called Bangladesh), the humiliated generals strove for new strength. And one who was needed for this was Khan, who was now working on the development of centrifuges in Europe.

The military brought Khan home, and he is said to have taken technical templates with him from his employer at the time. He built up a secret network that, in a race with India, laid the foundations for the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

What was driving Khan? Apparently more than money. Khan was one of those who viewed the nuclear monopoly of a few states as unjust. The fact that the West was following him was because he had thwarted their strategic plans, he once said. For a long time he lived shielded and closely guarded, and he remained conspicuously silent. The state made sure that he no longer traveled. At the same time, the army cultivated its reputation as a national hero whose work Pakistan regards as vital.

The prime minister ordered a state funeral. And a minister conjured up what Khan had essentially done for the country. He said the nation had become “invincible” through him.

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