LAHORE, Pakistan, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Pakistani authorities have released a physician arrested last month for alleged links with al Qaida, family sources said Tuesday.
Dr. Aamir Aziz was arrested at a hospital in Lahore where he was reportedly treating al Qaida and Taliban fugitives.
His mother, Zakia Aziz, who is also a physician, said her son returned home after more than a month in the custody of Pakistan's intelligence agencies.
Later, talking to reporters at his residence, Aamir Aziz said he was also interrogated by CIA and FBI agents. He said Pakistani intelligence agencies had been looking into his alleged links with the Taliban and al Qaida for more than a year and he was arrested twice.
He said that on Oct. 21 he was picked by a Pakistani intelligence agency from his residence in Lahore
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"My Pakistani and American interrogators wanted to know how the Taliban and al Qaida fighters were escaping from Afghanistan and who were helping them. I told them I had no information but they did not believe me. This went on for almost a month and finally they were convinced that I was innocent
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He said he had treated some people from Afghanistan at his residence but he never asked them who they were. Aziz said he was running a charitable clinic in Lahore and provided "medical assistance to anyone in need
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Last week, Aziz's mother filed a petition in the Lahore Court, seeking judicial help for news about her son. Acting on her petition, the court ordered the Pakistan government to produce her son.
Initially, the government denied any knowledge of Aziz's whereabouts but on Saturday, a government counsel informed the court he has contacted the country's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, and was awaiting its response.
Pakistani newspapers had also reported that Aziz was interrogated by FBI agents while in ISI's custody. Both Pakistani and U.S. Embassy officials in Islamabad rejected such reports as baseless.
Media reports also indicated that Aziz had provided medical advice to Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaida and Taliban leaders in the past.
The reports said that after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in December last year, Aziz also treated Taliban and al Qaida fugitives at his hospital in Lahore.
Aziz family sources said all such reports were wrong but acknowledged he had given medical assistance to people from Afghanistan on a humanitarian basis.
Aziz's arrest caused uproar in Pakistan, and religious parties accused the government of arresting him on America's advice.Topics related articles: