Amid fears of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into hands of fundamentalists, at least nine Pakistani nuclear scientists have absconded from the country.

The last defection took place in July 2002, the US-based South Asia Tribute online said quoting documents from Pakistani nuclear power plant CHASNUPP.

Eight of the nine missing were senior engineers and one was an assistant engineer, said the weekly run by Shaheen Shebai, who fled Pakistan fearing danger to his life for opposing the military regime of Pervez Musharraf.

Four of the absconding engineers belonged to the operations division of the power plant, two to the mechanical maintenance division and one each to the electrical, technical and training divisions, it said.

While six disappeared between February and October 2000, two absconded in 2002 and one in 1997.

According to the weekly, the document speculated that these engineers went to the US, Canada or Australia, but in fact they could have gone to any country as they had left without permission.

"The scientists of CHASNUPP have sounded the warning bell for the Pakistani authorities. They have to look after this sensitive resource and not push it to the edge. Otherwise it could mean disaster for the country," it quoted a retired nuclear scientist as saying.

EXTERNAL LINK

The South Asia Tribune