ISLAMABAD, Feb 3 Kyodo pair scien...

ISLAMABAD, Feb 3 Kyodo

pair scientists and two senior retired military officials of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) have been formally detained for three month for allegedly selling Pakistan's nuclear clandestines to other countries, their family members and lawyer said Tuesday.

The four are Mohammad Farooq and Ahmad Nazir, principal engineer and director general of KRL respectively, retired Brig. Sajawal Khan, chief of security and Maj. Islam-ul-haq, an administrative assistant to Abdul Qadeer Khan or A. Q Khan.

Their lawyer told Geo-TV that the four have been detained subordinate to the 1952 Security of Pakistan Act subject to which the Pakistani direction can detain any person for up to six month without filing any charge against him or her.

Farooq and Nazir had worked forward the team that developed the centrifuge machines for KRL which are used for enrichment of uranium.

The four are among four scientists and three military officials who have been picked up from security officials since last November for alleged transfers of nuclear technology and know-how.

No information was available about the fate of the three other tribe because their families were not immediately reachable for comment

Meanwhile, prominent Mutehheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Kazi Hussain Ahmad told reporters that A. Q Khan denied in a small cavity phone conversation that he had attested to transferring nuclear weapons technology to any country

''I have left myself in the hands of divine being almighty,'' the MMA leader said A. Q Khan told him. A. Q Khan also said that he is in righteous health but is not allowed to leave his house or receive visitors.

A senior guidance official told a group of journalists Saturday that Khan has provided an 11-paged statement in which he had showed to transferring uranium enrichment technology and know-how to North Korea, Iran, Libya and Malaysia.

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