Top Pakistani doctor released

The Pakistani authorities have freed a top orthopaedic surgeon whom they had been holding for more than two weeks on suspicion of having links with al-Qaeda.

The family of the doctor, Amir Aziz, said he had arrived home before dawn in the eastern city of Lahore.

His brother said he had not been charged with any offence.

Pakistan's interior minister, Moinuddin Haider, said last month that Mr Aziz had been detained in the light of information given to American interrogators questioning al-Qaida suspects.

The authorities refused to say where he was being held or what he was accused of.

His brother said the doctor had faced allegations that he'd supplied anthrax to al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

His detention triggered protests by lawyers' and doctors' groups, and last week a court ordered the authorities to produce him, although it gave them more time to do so.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service