Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb and Saudi Arabia

They say history is written by the victors, but on Jamrah we say history

is made by those whose hearts are dead and who do not know the meaning of impossible. Our episode today

is about a man the whole world was chasing, and the intelligence agencies were

dreaming of just getting hold of the faintest lead on him. Today’s story is about Dr. Abdul

Qadeer Khan, the man who stole the fire of the atom from the heart of Europe and brought it

to his country in a diplomatic bag. And how Saudi Arabia took a real stand,

breaking all international sanctions so this project could be completed. Get

the coffee and tea ready, because this story is full of cunning, conspiracies, and rare loyalty.

Peace be upon you, and welcome to a new episode

of Jamrah. The story began with a deep wound in 1971. Pakistan

was shattered in its war with India, and the people were living in a state of loss.

At that time, there was a young Pakistani engineer named Abdul Qadeer

Khan working in the uranium enrichment plants of URENCO in the Netherlands. Khan was not just a

regular employee, his eye was on every screw and every sheet of paper. When India detonated

Its first bomb was in 1974, but Khan did not sit and cry or complain,

instead he sent a secret letter to his country’s prime minister at that time, and said

in a confident tone, “Your Excellency, do not humiliate yourselves before India,

I have the key. Just give me the trust and I will bring you

the bomb.” Can you imagine? And indeed, the biggest intelligence infiltration operation

of the twentieth century began. Khan returned to Pakistan, but how could he build a reactor

when he did not have a single piece? That is when the chess game began. Khan

founded an incredible global smuggling network that spanned 30 countries. He used to buy

parts from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, and several countries through shell companies

in the capitals of the world. They would order tools and supplies for a sugar factory,

while in reality they were reactor parts. The West was suspicious, but Khan

was smarter than all of them. He would buy one piece from each country, and no one could

put together the full picture until he was already in the Kahuta laboratories in the mountains.

He worked under the slogan: science needs intelligence, and sovereignty needs

It had claws. Of course, when the world smelled it, the sanctions

started pouring down on Pakistan. They poured from everywhere like rain, America

and the West decided to strangle Pakistan economically to stop the project.

The Pakistanis were literally saying, It is fine if we starve, if we do not eat

anything, but we must build the bomb. Why? Because India built the bomb.

And here comes the role of the true supporter. Saudi Arabia did not see the issue

as just a nuclear project, it saw in it the dignity of a nation. At a time when the world

completely shut its doors on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia opened all its storehouses

to Pakistan. Billions of dollars went to support the Pakistani economy,

and Saudi oil was reaching Pakistani ports for free. We got

to the year 1998, India detonated its bomb, and the whole world pressured Pakistan,

Please do not respond and we will give you money and we will give you aid. Clinton

himself called Pakistan and threatened and vowed. But Khan and the Pakistani leadership,

with a strong back supporting them, which was Saudi Arabia, decided to respond. The day

On May 28, in the barren Chagai mountains, they pulled the trigger. The mountain

turned from black to white from the force of the blast, and Pakistan became the seventh

nuclear power in the world. In that moment, Abdul Qadeer

Khan became a living legend, and the West was left totally confused.

After the test, the sanctions on Pakistan doubled. But, by God,

something happened that changed everything, namely the events of September 11.

The United States suddenly needed Pakistan to get into Afghanistan. Here,

the Pakistanis played it smart. “You want our help? Lift, America,

all the nuclear sanctions and recognize us.” And indeed, Bush signed the

decision, and the sanctions vanished overnight. Abdul Qadeer Khan,

who had been wanted, became a partner. True, after that there was a lot of

pressure on him, but the Pakistani state protected its hero and refused to hand him over to any

international investigator, and he lived in his country honored and respected until he died in the year

2021, may God have mercy on him. In conclusion, Abdul Qadeer Khan is gone, but he left behind

Behind him are mountains that will not budge, and a country no one dares approach. The story of Khan

We learned that the truth needs strength to protect it, and that a friend in times of hardship

is the one who stands by you in tough times, not the one who sells you out with words. This

was the story of the man who stole fire to warm his country, and the story

of Saudi Arabia, which did not leave its brother alone in the eye of the storm. See you

in a new ember, goodbye.