New Delhi, November 22
The USA has asked for the custody of two more Pakistani nuclear scientists for questioning to determine their role, if any, in building a nuclear bomb for Osama bin Laden, diplomatic sources disclosed here today.

The two scientists in question — Mr Suleiman Assad and Mr Mohammad Mukhtar — have fled to Myanmar where they are understood to have been given safe sanctuary.

The Pakistan Government, scared that the two scientists could blow the whistle on the Pakistan-Taliban nexus in the nuclear field, played a role in requesting the Myanmar Government to give sanctuary to them.

Sources said the Pakistan Foreign Office had requested the Myanmar Government a few days ago to accept two Pakistanis. To this, Myanmar had asked Islamabad to give an undertaking that the two Pakistanis were not terrorists. Islamabad promptly gave this undertaking.

Significantly, the Pakistani response to Myanmar’s queries bordered on the dangerous. Islamabad gave feelers to the Myanmar authorities that the two scientists would help in building their nuclear arsenal.

The two scientists are understood to have been taken to Monywa district of Sajing division in Myanmar. Mr Assad and Mr Mukhtar, in their late fifties, are fairly senior and have been involved in Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The USA had recently asked the Pakistan Government for the custody of two more scientists — Bashiruddin and Abdul Majid — who have been placed under house arrest by the Pakistan Government for quite some time. One more scientist, Mirza Yusuf, is also reportedly under house arrest.

It is understood that Islamabad has been dilly-dallying over the American request and is not going to hand over the two.