Sunday, April 3 2005 12:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Pakistani scientists Abdul Qadeer Khan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood had held meetings with Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders, exchanged letters with militant organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and attended their gatherings and rallies, a media report said.

"When the CIA searched (Sultan Bashiruddin) Mehmood's UTN (Umma Tameere-Nau) office in Kabul, they found large amounts of data on the construction and maintenance of nuclear weapons from the Kahuta Laboratories. It also found letters exchanged between the UTN and Islamist extremist organisations including Lashkar-e-Toiba", a report in Pakistani weekly 'The Friday Times' said.

Mehmood, a close confidante of A Q Khan and a former Director of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, was arrested on October 23, 2001, at the headquarters of the UTN, which he had set up for "humanitarian work in Afghanistan", it said.

Quoting the famed journal 'Bulletin of Atomic Scientists', the article said Khan and Mehmood and other scientists of his organisation "attended Lashkar-e-Toiba gatherings".

Khan also appeared in the rallies of the LeT headed by Hafeez Saeed. The militant outfit, which later changed its name to Jamaat al-Dawaa after being banned, "is alleged to have helped in equipping Al Qaeda with 'dirty' bombs", the article said.

Mehmood, who was used to enrich uranium in Pakistan's Khushab plant, and Khan were also known to have held meetings with top Al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden, the paper said.