A Quetta-based neurosurgeon who went missing in December 2018 returned home on Wednesday morning after nearly seven weeks.

Dr Ibrahim Khalil was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified armed men in Quetta's Shahbaz Town area on Dec 13. A first information report was not registered when the doctor went missing.

His return was confirmed by Doctors Action Committee Chairman Dr Zahir Khan Mandokhail.

"The kidnapped doctor has reached his home," Dr Mandokhail said. "Nearly Rs50 million have been paid in ransom to kidnappers," Dr Mandokhail said while addressing a press conference at Civil Hospital Quetta.

He added that the kidnappers had given Dr Khalil Rs5,000 and left him in Karachi, from where he hired a taxi and then travelled to Quetta.

According to his relatives, however, Dr Khalil was dropped off in the Pak-Afghan border town of Chaman by armed men, from where he returned home.

Upon hearing the news of his return, a number of medical professionals and relatives reached his residence.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), 33 doctors have been kidnapped, 18 target-killed and over 90 abandoned in Balochistan during the past decade.

The PMA claims that all the doctors that were kidnapped in the past have returned home only after paying ransom.