AQ Khan released under 'agreement': minister

Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan has been released from house arrest under an agreement with the government, Federal Minister for Defence Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar has said.

Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan has been released from house arrest under an agreement with the government, Federal Minister for Defence Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar has said.

Mukhtar was speaking to a TV channel Saturday but he did not give details of the agreement or when it was reached, Online reported.

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Five years after confessing to illegally proliferating Pakistan's atomic secrets and being put under house arrest, Khan, who mentored the nuclear programme, walked free Friday after a court said that the charges against him could not be substantiated.

Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam of the Islamabad High Court, giving his verdict on several petitions filed against Khan's detention, declared him a free citizen.