A file picture of Abdul Qadeer Khan with an army officer. (Reuters)

Islamabad, Feb 3: Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Islamic bomb now under a probe in Pakistan for leaking nuclear secrets, is said to have denied the government’s claim that he had made a confession.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the six-party Opposition alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), talked to Khan by phone and said: “The revered nuclear scientist denied he had confessed to the government of having indulged in proliferation”.

“After the government’s claim about Khan’s confession, I tried to reach the scientist and finally managed to contact him through his mobile phone,” Ahmad told the private Geo television channel. He said that Khan denied he gave any such statement to the government.

He further quoted Khan as saying that he has been confined to his residence and no one is allowed to see him.

The Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) had sealed Khan’s fate after a lengthy meeting chaired by President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday.

An official statement, which was been issued after the meeting, said: “In the background of the investigations into alleged acts of nuclear proliferation by a few individuals and to facilitate those in investigations in a free and objective manner, Khan, special adviser to the Prime Minister on strategic affairs, has ceased to hold the office.”

Hours after his removal, the authorities also intensified security around Khan’s residence.

As most Pakistanis await Musharraf’s national address on Thursday, the fate of the father of the country’s nuclear bomb hangs in balance, particularly after he allegedly admitted his involvement in nuclear proliferation to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Military authorities, currently interrogating Khan and six of his colleagues, also seem to be at a loss on how to proceed against a man who is idolised by millions of Pakistanis as a “national hero”.

“No doubt he is a hero, but we were faced with the choice of saving the national hero or saving the country from international sanctions,” senior army officials said while briefing mediapersons on the interrogation being of Khan and six of his Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) aides.

“Our focus was nuclear proliferation and not the money involved in it,” officials explained when asked as to how much money Khan may have made by the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya.

But since Monday, Khan has been cut off from the rest of the country. Several journalists tried in vain to get Khan’s reactions to the government’s claims.

The interrogation — officially called debriefings — had begun in late November after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran disclosed the sources that were aiding Tehran’s nuclear programme. One of them was Pakistan.

Officials also claimed Khan had confessed to his contacts with the “nuclear underworld” based in the Gulf emirate of Dubai and some European countries.

He used his authority as head of KRL for unauthorised business contacts with Libya, North Korea and Iran in violation of national and international laws,” officials said.

Khan pursued the proliferation business between 1989-2000 because of the immunity he enjoyed as the head of the country’s prime nuclear programme, the officials said.

General Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistan army chief spokesman, told the German press agency DPA late yesterday that the scientist’s “personal security had been enhanced but denied he had been put under house arrest.