Pakistan Army's spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif is son of nuclear scientist linked to Al-Qaeda, Taliban: UNSC record

Time of India

14-05-2025

New Delhi:
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry
, spokesperson for the
Pakistan Army
(
DG ISPR
), is the son of a
nuclear scientist
-
Mahmood Sultan Bashir-Ud-Din
- sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council resolution of 2001.
Mahmood Sultan Bashir-Ud-Din was listed on December 24, 2001, pursuant to paragraph 8 (c) of resolution 1333 (2000) as being associated with Al-Qaeda,
Osama bin Laden
(deceased) or the
Taliban
for "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf, or in support of", "supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to" or "otherwise supporting acts or activities of" Osama bin Laden,
Al-Qaeda
and the Taliban, according to a UNSC notification.
Mahmood Sultan Bashir-Ud-Din is a nuclear scientist who founded and served as a director of
Ummah Tameer e-Nau
(UTN), a terror outfit. Other directors of UTN included Majeed Abdul Chaudhry and Mohammed Tufail.
UTN provided Osama bin Laden (deceased) and the Taliban (previous regime) with information about chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, according to UNSC.
During UTN visits to Afghanistan, Bashir-Ud-Din met Laden and Al-Qaeda leaders, and discussed nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In 2001, he also met Mullah Omar, listed as Mohammed Omar Ghulam Nabi (1988 Sanctions List).
During a follow-up meeting, an associate of Osama bin Laden indicated that he had nuclear material and wanted to know how to use it to make a weapon. Bashir-Ud-Din provided information about the infrastructure needed for a nuclear weapons programme and the effects of such weapons, according to the UNSC notification.
In November 2001, the Taliban left Kabul and workers at UTN's Kabul offices fled the area with them. Searches of UTN locations in Kabul yielded documents setting out a plan to kidnap a US attache and outlining basic nuclear physics related to nuclear weapons. Bashir-Ud-Din also provided financial support to the Taliban. He reportedly established UTN to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure and raise money to develop the Taliban-held areas of Afghanistan.