ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: A senior official of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Mansoor Ahmed, who was called for second session of debriefing, returned home on Saturday night.

A son of Mansoor Ahmed told Dawn on Sunday night said that his father came last night and he was in good health. Mr Mansoor has been serving as in charge of the KRL's Sports Department. He said his father had refused to talk to anybody about the debriefing session.

Mr Mansoor is stated to be one of the five officials of the KRL who were picked up for questioning last week for their alleged involvement in transferring nuclear technology to other countries.

When contacted, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said he was not aware of Mr Mansoor's return. "You should better contact Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid or Director-General of ISPR Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan about it," he added. Both the federal minister for information and the Director-General of ISPR could not be contacted, as both of them were unavailable on their mobile telephones.

The government, a couple of weeks ago, released three other officials of the KRL who were picked up for the first debriefing session. Mr Mansoor is stated to be the only official released so far by the government among those called for the second debriefing session.

Meanwhile, children of detained officials of the KRL told Dawn that they would file an application with the office of UN Human Rights Observers on Monday for its intervention in the matter and for early release of the detained officials. They said they would also try to meet President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to get their fathers released.