Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood
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Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood (or Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood, b. 1940) (Urdu: سلطان بشیر الدین محمود) is a Pakistani Nuclear Engineer, and Islamic scholar educated in Lahore and Britain. He studied for his masters degree in nuclear engineering Manchester. He has written several books on Islam and Science, especially as relates to the Quranic writings with the present day science. He has also had a focus that is somewhat eschatological, predicting war and apocalypse (in the book Cosmology and Human Destiny) in the years between 2008 and 2017 based upon sun spot activity.
He is perhaps most famous for his part in the development of the Pakistani nuclear industry. In Pakistani nuclear circles he is considered to be the main architect of Pakistan's atomic bomb[citation needed]. In 1971 he invented an instrument, the SBM probe, to check heavy water leaks in nuclear power plants which is still used world wide.[citation needed] Mahmood was also in the news after his 2001 arrest in Pakistan for allegedly having contacts with the Taliban. During this time, he was questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency, although what actually happened is unsure, as Pakistani officials deny this.
Mahmood was assigned the task as the first Project Director of the Pakistan Nuclear Bomb Program named Kahuta Research Labs.[citation needed] He is said to have visited the west a number of times to gather information for this program. Mahmood worked closely with Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is considered responsible for most of Pakistan's nuclear capabilities, working as his deputy. He is credited with the design of the Khushab nuclear power plant near Mianwali, a heavy water reactor that produces plutonium. Khushab is the primary source of plutonium for Pakistan.
He was an outspoken opponent of the Nawaz Sharif government, leading to his retirement in 1999, when he founded "Ummah Tameer e Nau" ("Reconstruction for the Islamic Community"), a Pakistani islamic charity (which has been reported to be affiliated with the Taliban through Mahmood's own alleged associations), which is also very active in Afghanistan. Ummah Tameer-e-Nau has focused on educational institutions, hospitals, demining operations, and islamism.[citation needed]
After release he has been out of public eye and lives in Islamabad. He has written over 15 books, the most well-known being "Doomsday and Life After Death", which is an analysis of the Quran. His also written a Tafseer of the Quran in English.
[edit] References
- Frantz, Douglas; Rohde, David. "A Nation Challenged: Biological Terror; 2 Pakistanis Linked to Papers on Anthrax Weapons", The New York Times, 28 November, 2001.
