Israel's Mossad intelligence agency allegedly targeted German and Swiss companies that assisted in the development of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program in the 1980s, Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ), a daily based in Switzerland, reported on Sunday.
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During the 1980s, Pakistan and Iran worked closely together on the construction of nuclear weapons devices, the report explained.
Then-president Jimmy Carter's administration sent diplomatic advances to the Swiss and German companies also aiding this project to fight the progression of Pakistan's nuclear program, according to NZZ.
A few months later, three facilities linked to the European companies were bombed – a Cora Engineering Chur employee's house on May 18, 1981, a Walischmiller company factory building on May 18, 1981, and the Heinz Mebus engineering office on Nov. 6, 1981.
Threatening messages were also sent to other firms by phone, NZZ claimed.
"The suspicion that the Mossad might be behind the attacks and threats soon arose," the report said. "For Israel, the prospect that Pakistan, for the first time, could become an Islamic state with an atomic bomb posed an existential threat."
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Additionally, NZZ points to the fact that the Organization for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia, a previously unknown entity that claimed responsibility for the explosions, was "never heard from" again following the incident.
Adrian Hanni, a contemporary historian and intelligence service expert, told the daily that the Mossad's participation in the bombings was probable, but there is no "smoking gun" to prove involvement.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
