An unsung jilted lover saved Pakistans nuclear programme from a major sabotage three decades ago after a whirlwind romance with a nuclear scientist,a top former ISI official,who was jailed by Benazir Bhutto and military ruler Pervez Musharraf,has revealed. A Karachi lecturer,who felt betrayed after a romance with a nuclear scientist of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP),gave lead to the ISI in 1978,which in turn led to the dramatic arrest of 12 Pakistani scientists and engineers,planning to sabotage the countrys nuclear sites,claims Brig (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed,the then head of the spy agency in Sindh. The expose led to the arrest of Pakistani scientists who were later given death and life imprisonment sentences by the special tribunal set up by the then president General Ziaul Haq, The News daily reported on Thursday. While many people take credit for saving our nuclear programme,no one actually knows how an unsung jilted girl had actually ended up saving Pakistans nuclear project out of sheer vengeance, Ahmed,who broke his silence of over 30 years,was quoted as saying by the Pakistani daily. Recalling the event,the former ISI officer of Operation Midnight Jackals fame,said he had first met the lecturer of a Karachi Memon family while she was undergoing treating for secret concealment,a disease wherein a patient could not be cured unless he or she shared a secret kept with her. Later when the credential of Rafique Munshi,an engineer with KANUPP came under suspicion,Brigadier Ahmed,who served as director in-charge of Internal Security ISI for several years,again traced the Karachi lecturer after he came to know that woman was linked to the nuclear scientist. Though the woman felt betrayed and cheated by Munshi she was still dating the nuclear engineer. She led the ISI officer to Munshis secret safe and official files related to Pakistans nuclear sites and installations along with piles of dollars. Obviously,engineer Munshi was working for the secret agency of a superpower which used to provide him questions and he used to give them the replies to those questions related to the nuclear programme, said Ahmed.
