20 January 2004	Tuesday	27 Ziqa'ad 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Family members of two of the five senior officials of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) picked up from their residences on Saturday night by anonymous security agencies made a surprise appearance at the Foreign Office here on Monday to share their woes with local and foreign journalists present there for a weekly news briefing.

As soon as the briefing by FO spokesman ended, the concerned relatives of the two KRL officers-cum-scientists approached journalists and narrated how heads of their families had been picked up from their homes.

Interestingly, the briefing itself was dominated by pointed questions regarding the so-called in-house de-briefing of the scientists. The presence of the family members who instantly captured all media attention unnerved the ministry personnel who had been caught off guard. Information officer Nadeem Kiyani, visibly irked by the security lapse, firmly asked the relatives not to use the Foreign Office premises for their personal agenda.

Later, the relatives went out and held a mini press conference outside the main entrance amid flashing cameras and gave interviews to some foreign TV networks.

Samina Adil, who introduced herself as Dr Nazir Ahmed's daughter had come with her brother Usman Ahmad. She said around 7pm on Saturday between eight and ten men in plain clothes had arrived in three vehicles at her father's residence in sector F-10/3. The men barged into the house and asked for her father who had returned from his office about half an hour earlier.

She said her mother tried to intervene but the men insisted they had to take him away for some questioning. Her father, she said, then went to his room and packed up some clothes in a small bag and went off with the unidentified men.

Dr Nazir Ahmed's daughter said her family was extremely worried because they had not heard from him and had no clue about his whereabouts. She said her family had approached even the current chairman of KRL who told them that "it was above him."

"My father was very close to Dr A.Q. Khan, he was like his right hand man," Ms Samina Adil claimed. When asked if her father had been in touch with Dr A.Q. Khan in recent days, she responded in the affirmative. She said her father held a senior post at KRL with the title of a chief engineer.

"Yes, he had been in touch with Dr A.Q. Khan, that was his job," she said. The son of Brig Sajjanal also gave a similar account of his father's arrest.