A Q Khan could be on Mossad hit list

NEW DELHI: Could Pakistan���s nuclear scientist A Q Khan be on a secret hit list of Israel���s famous spy service, Mossad? It���s possible, particularly since six of his closest associates, all nuclear scientists from the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), apparently are.

In a recent book on the history of Mossad, author Gordon Thomas says that after tracing the travel paths of Khan���s associates to Saudi Arabia and Tehran during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad���s regime, Mossad moved these scientists from their ������detain������ list to ������kill������ list.

���Gideon���s Spies��� records how Mossad got into the job of tracking the disgraced scientist and his network after al-Qaida���s No. 3, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, revealed a plot to plant a ���dirty bomb��� in the US to American investigators in 2003.

Soon after, the book relates, Mossad told the US that Khan had travelled to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden in April 2003, along with another nuclear scientist, Murad Qasim, a leading expert in the intricacies of centrifugal technology in Khan���s laboratories.