The CRS Report further added, "Mr. Bhutto received an unsolicited letter from a Pakistani scientist who had studied in Louvain, Belgium, Abdul Qadeer Khan, offering to help by illegally acquiring sensitive centrifuge technology from his new employers at a nuclear facility in the Netherlands. Over the next few years with the assistance of the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI)Mr. Khan would acquire the key technology to help Pakistan produce fissionable material to make a bomb."
Both the CRS report and Riedel pointed out to the help that China gave to Pakistan in its nuclear-weapons quest, a subject successive US administrations are leery of broaching for fear of angering Beijing. "Islamabad gained technology from many illegal sources," says the CRS report, adding, "This extensive assistance is reported to have included, among other things, uranium-enrichment technology from Europe (stolen by Khan, according to Riedel), blueprints for a small nuclear weapon from China, and missile technology from China and North Korea."
India plans a covert military attack on a Pakistani nuclear reactor
In their book, Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Conspiracy, Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark claim that Indian military officials secretly travelled to Israel in February 1983 to buy electronic-warfare equipment to neutralize Kahuta's air defences. Israel reportedly also provided India with technical details of the F-16 aircraft in exchange for Indians providing them some details about the MiG-23 aircraft. In mid- to late-1983, according to strategic affairs expert Bharat Karnad, Indira Gandhi asked the IAF once again to plan for an air strike on Kahuta.
The mission was cancelled after Pakistani nuclear scientist Munir Ahmed Khan met Indian Atomic Energy Commission chief-designate Raja Ramanna at an international meet in Vienna and threatened a retaliatory strike on Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay, according to Sushant Singh of Indian Express, who also wrote in October 2015:
The next time India is believed to have seriously considered attacking Kahuta was in September-October 1984. It has also been rumored that Israeli air force was part of the plans to attack Kahuta in 1984 because it did not want to see an "Islamic Bomb" developed by Pakistan. Israel was supposed to lead this attack and not merely play the role of advising the IAF. Bharat Karnad has written that Israeli aircraft were to be staged from Jamnagar airfield in Gujarat, refuel at a satellite airfield in North India and track the Himalayas to avoid early radar detection, but Indira Gandhi eventually vetoed the idea. Levy and Scott-Clark though claim that Indira Gandhi had signed off on the Israeli-led operation in March 1984 but backed off after the US state department warned India "the US will be responsive if India persists".
Earlier in January 2015, India Times reported: "In 1981, India planned to bomb Pakistan's nuclear plant at Kahuta, inspired by Israeli attack on under-construction Iraqi nuclear reactors, the India Times reported on January 25, 2017."
According to the India Times about 930,000 declassified documents posted online by the CIA provide interesting insights into India's increasing concerns over Pakistan's nuclear program in the early '80s. One such set of documents pointed out how India had planned to bomb Pakistan's nuclear plant at Kahuta. This was a covert operation planned by India that was shelved after international pressure.
The India Times also said:
"Secret documents revealed that the US Ambassador to Pakistan handed over a letter by President Ronald Reagan to General Zia-ul Haq which warned Pakistan about a possible Indian military attack on the Pakistan's nuclear reactor at Kahuta.
"An article in Washington Post in 1982 revealed Indira Gandhi was advised by the Indian military to target the Pakistani nuclear plant.
"Israel, according to reports, wanted to use Gujarat's Jamnagar base to launch its jets and another base for refuelling. In March 1984, Indira okayed the operation, bringing India, Pakistan and Israel within striking distance of a nuclear conflict. But Gandhi backed off after the Reagan administration warned of action, say reports."
2019 report about India-Israel joint plan to target Pakistani nuclear facilities
More recently, Daily Pakistan Global reported on March 4, 2019, Pakistan has disclosed a joint plan by India and Israel to target its nuclear facilities ostensibly on the pretext of anti-terror war in the wake of Pulwama attack.
The daily reported that as tension between Pakistan and India lingers on, official reports by the government of Pakistan confirm that India and Israel were ready for a joint attack against Pakistan; however, the threat of retaliation and active vigilance staved off the strike a few days ago.
Multiple journalists in Pakistan, while quoting official sources and meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, have revealed that the joint plan was thwarted due to the contact between the spy agencies of the South-Asian countries and threat of retaliation by the armed forces of Pakistan. "High-level sources have informed us that there was a plan to attack 7-8 places in Pakistan from a base in Rajasthan, India. Pakistan had learnt that Israel was helping India in this plan and this was a joint plan of these countries," the Daily Pakistan Global quoted a veteran journalist as saying.
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