On January 20, 1972, Pakistan started a nuclear weapons development program in a bid to become the first Islamic country to possess a nuclear bomb. Coming on the heels of embarrassing losses in the Liberation War for Bangladesh (aka East Pakistan), and then failure in the 1971 war with India, Pakistan vowed to have a nuclear weapon by 1976.
Digging Deeper
Although Pakistan missed their timeline goals, by 1998 Pakistan became the first Islamic majority country to possess a viable nuclear weapon, and the 7th country to officially possess nuclear weapons (after the US, UK, USSR, France, China, and India). Now that North Korea is recognized as having nuclear weapons, the world total nuclear armed states is now 8, with Israel being an unofficial 9th. South Africa may have possessed nuclear weapons during the apartheid era, but is no longer believed to possess such bombs.
