ISLAMABAD Oct 28: Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud, a renowned nuclear scientist who was nabbed by a sensitive agency last Wednesday for interrogations has been released after being cleared by the security agencies, official sources told Dawn on Sunday.

A staunch supporter of Taliban militia, Mahmud had resigned as a senior nuclear scientist from Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in protest against government’s consideration to sign CTBT.

After that he visited Afghanistan a number of times to discuss with Taliban a number of development projects and had built a grand network in collaboration of Pakistani investors in last couple of years, under banners of “Ummah Tameer-i-Nau”. He was suspected by FBI for transferring nuclear technology secrets to the Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden.

He was picked up by an agency on October 24 on a report by the American intelligence authorities and since then was kept in a rest house for investigations.