Abdul Qadeer Khan

Pakistani nuclear scientist accused of industrial espionage
Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan waves after his release from house arrest in Islamabad
Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was accused of espionage. Photograph: Mian Khursheed/Reuters

If the runaway threat of nuclear proliferation ever explodes into Armageddon, the chances are that someone will blame the Pakistani scientist and international salesman Abdul Qadeer Khan for the devastation.

Born into relatively modest circumstances in Bhopal, India, in 1936, Khan was the son of a schoolteacher. The family moved to Pakistan five years after the bloodshed of partition.

Khan's political loyalties were always directed towards the Muslim state. Following university in Karachi, the enthusiastic young metallurgist was sent abroad to pursue postgraduate studies in West Germany and Belgium. He took a job at Urenco, a British-Dutch-German consortium developing uranium enrichment, in the city of Almelo, in the eastern Netherlands.

In 1976, he returned home and was appointed head of the country's nuclear programme. India's first successful nuclear test, in 1974, had spurred its rival and neighbour to accelerate research efforts to build a bomb.

After leaving Holland, Khan was sentenced to four years in prison by an Amsterdam court for industrial espionage – allegedly for stealing sensitive enrichment technology blueprints. The sentence was later dismissed on appeal.

The Khan Research Laboratory at Kahuta in Pakistan soon became the centre of Pakistan's nuclear research. It developed the use of multiple centrifuges to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level.

Pakistan's first nuclear test was conducted in May 1998, but it was the subsequent nuclear proliferation scandal that brought Khan to international attention.

The development of almost identical nuclear centrifuge programmes by Iran, North Korea and Libya focused attention on Khan's alleged sale of the technology to countries the Bush administration deemed "rogue states".

The interception of a shipment bound for Libya in 2003 prompted an international outcry and led to intense political pressure on Pakistan to rein in the nuclear entrepreneur.

Khan confessed in an interview on state-run television the following year, admitting that for 15 years he had supplied nuclear equipment and secrets to foreign countries.

He offered his "deepest regrets and unqualified apologies", adding: "I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon."

Last year he said he disowned that confession.

Since being confined to house arrest, Khan has pledged to dedicate himself to combating illiteracy and establishing educational institutes.