Two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists, suspected of having links with prime terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden have been detained again for questioning, a spokesman for the military-led government said Tuesday.
Authorities first took the pair into custody on Oct. 23 and announced last week that they had been released.
However, army Gen. Rashid Quereshi told reporters the scientists, Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, had been brought in for further interrogation. He declined to say why. Other officials said no charges had been filed.
The two men had worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until their retirement in 1999. Both subsequently made frequent trips to Afghanistan and met bin Laden on two occasions, government officials have said.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Monday that authorities suspected them of having links within Afghanistan. He did not elaborate, but said the two were not linked to Pakistan's atomic weapons program.
The scientists have said they visited Afghanistan on behalf of a charity organization, which helped farmers and students.
They deny passing nuclear secrets to Afghanistan's now retreating Taliban regime or to bin Laden.
Pakistani officials also say there was nothing to suggest that they revealed nuclear secrets to anyone in Afghanistan.
Pakistan conducted its first underground nuclear bomb tests in 1998.
Until the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, supported the Taliban, which has harbored bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network. Bureau Report