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DR. ABDUL QADEER KHAN

1936 - 2021

Missile Man of Pakistan

Pakistani engineer , a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program who was also involved for decades in a black market of nuclear technology and know-how whereby uranium-enrichment centrifuges, nuclear warhead designs, missiles, and expertise were sold or traded to Iran, North Korea, Libya, and possibly other countries. In 1947, during Khan’s childhood, India achieved independence from Britain, and Muslim areas in the east and west were partitioned to form the state of Pakistan. Khan immigrated to West Pakistan in 1952, and in 1960 he graduated from the University of Karachi with a degree in metallurgy. Over the next decade he pursued graduate studies abroad, first in West Berlin and then in Delft, Netherlands, where in 1967 he received a master’s degree in metallurgy. In 1972 he earned a doctorate in metallurgical engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Meanwhile, in 1964 he married Hendrina Reterink, a British national who had been born to Dutch expatriate parents in South Africa and raised in what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) before moving to the Netherlands.

Biographies:

  • At the time of his birth in the mid-1930s, Abdul Qadeer Khan was born into the British Raj, or British India, which included several nation-states such as modern-day India and Pakistan.
  • Khan was born at a time when the nations of India and Pakistan longed to be free of colonial rule.
  • By the early 1940s, World War II was underway, and British India was a critical location for allied forces to combat Japanese forces in southeast Asia.
  • Despite several uprisings within British India, Britain retained power throughout the war.
  • At the conclusion of World War II, Britain was concerned by tensions continuing to grow in India and was aware of religious tensions among Hindus and Muslims.
  • The crown was also concerned about the danger to British citizens from a previous mutiny. As a result, Britain sought to transfer the power of the British Raj to its people swiftly.