Pakistani investigators travelled to Iran and Libya late last year to investigate allegations that Pakistani scientists sold nuclear secrets to the so-called ‘‘rogue states’’, a minister said today.The trip preceded the current probe into 12 top nuclear scientists, engineers and administrators, including the revered ‘‘father’’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan. The inquiry trip was prompted by a letter in November from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.‘‘After the IAEA inquiries they wanted to have themselves some information against some people,’’ Rashid said of the Pakistani team. He said he did not know who was in the team or how large it was.‘‘They wanted to check how much involved they were, whether they were involved or not.’’ Asked what they were alleged to be involved in, Rashid said: ‘‘Something like information leakage.’’Rashid would not say when the trip took place, but it appears to have been between the receipt of the IAEA letter in November and the first interrogations of nuclear scientists in December. — (PTI)
