U.S. officials have renewed requests for Pakistan to turn over two Pakistani nuclear scientists to the United States, the Islamabad newspaper Khabrain reported Tuesday.  Pakistan, however, has refused to hand over the scientists — Sultan Bashiru-din Mehmood and Chaudry Abdul Majid, both of whom formerly worked for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission — citing the secrecy of Pakistan’s nuclear program (see GSN, March 4).

Pakistan first detained Mehmood and Majid on Oct. 23, 2001, because the United States had requested that authorities investigate them, according to Khabrain (see GSN, Oct. 26, 2001).  U.S. authorities were concerned that the scientists, who had also worked in Afghanistan through their nongovernmental organization called Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, had contacts with al-Qaeda, Khabrain reported.

Pakistani and FBI officials investigated the scientists in Pakistan, and Pakistani officials later released them after a month-long detention.  Pakistani authorities have established security measures at the scientists’ residences in Islamabad, sources told Khabrain (Aizaz Hussain Syed, Islamabad Khabrain, July 9 in FBIS-NES, July 10).

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