ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: A former Pakistani nuclear scientist who ran some relief operations for neighbouring Afghanistan has been taken into “protective custody” by unidentified authorities, a government minister said on Thursday.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told Reuters that Bashiruddin Mahmood had been taken into protective custody by some agency on Tuesday but he had no other details about him or why that had happened.

Mahmood is a known scientist who has written articles in newspapers protesting against Islamabad’s consideration of signing the nuclear CTBT in 1998, earning the ire of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif who had promised to sign it. Islamabad had not signed.—Reuters