Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood

Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood (or Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood, b. 1938) is a Pakistani physicist, educated in Lahore and Britain; he has written several books on the scientific aspects of Islam. Mahmood was a key figure in the development of the Pakistani nuclear industry since the late 1960s. He worked with Abdul Qadeer Khan on the Pakistan nuclear weapon project from 1974, and designed the Khushab plant near Lahore, a heavy water reactor that produces plutonium. Mahmood was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz for his work. After he retired from the program he worked for a charity active in Afghanistan, the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (Reconstruction of the Islamic Community) and was arrested in October 2001 by Pakistani Intelligence agents on suspicion of sharing his nuclear expertise with the Taliban regime. Mahmood was released November 22, 2001. During the early phase of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the American military bombed and destroyed Ummah Tameer-e-Nau's flour mill and flour godowns in Qandahar, causing widespread starvation.