ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Three officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), taken into custody for 'debriefing', have now been released, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Wednesday.

He, however, said that Mohammad Farooq, the director general of KRL, had not been released. He told a press conference here that the second debriefing session of KRL officials "has been started" in which seven officials "are being asked questions".

He said there would be no third 'debriefing' session. Of the three released, he gave the names of only two - Mohammad Zubair and Saeed Ahmad. The minister said Pakistan started the probe after receiving a letter from the International Atomic Energy Commission in November in which it had raised concerns about certain Pakistani officials.

He said no individual, no matter how important, was more sacred than Pakistan, and the whole exercise was being conducted to make Islamabad's case stronger before the international community that it was not involved in nuclear proliferation.

He said there was no restriction on the movement of nuclear scientists who, according to him, numbered in thousands. However, he said, two high-ranking officials working in the KRL were requested not to go for Haj this year.

The minister said the Pakistan government never supported proliferation of nuclear technology but if some individuals were (found) responsible (for this) they would be proceeded against according to the law of the land.

He said the government was not being disrespectful to those who worked in the KRL, including scientists, "but everything was being done in the larger interest of the country".

The minister said that he had a long meeting with Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan before coming to address the press conference. He added that certain questions had also been to Dr Khan.

He said reports that Mohammad Farooq, the DG KRL, had been shifted to Bagram Airport were 'rubbish'. He said the official was in the custody of Pakistani security agencies.

The minister said the whole exercise was started after receiving a letter from IAEC in November and after a team of Pakistani officials had visited Iran and Libya.

Asked if Gen Aslam Beg, the former COAS during whose tenure, it is alleged, Pakistan transferred technology to Iran, was being questioned, he said it was wrong to say that Pakistan Army was in control of the KRL all along. According to him, it took control of the KRL only "a few years back."

The minister said he would not comment, at this point in time, on the statements of his two former colleagues in the Nawaz Sharif government saying that Mirza Aslam Beg had proposed to their government to sell nuclear technology for badly needed cash.

He said that Pakistan's nuclear and missile programmes were national assets and would be protected at all cost. Mohammad Asghar adds from Rawalpindi: The vice-chairman of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) has been barred from travelling to Saudi Arabia for performing Haj as he may be required by intelligence agencies for "debriefing", a source told Dawn on Wednesday.

The KRL vice-chairman, Dr Ashraf Atta, was scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia with family on Wednesday. But at the eleventh hour, he was directed by intelligence officials not to leave for Haj as he might be required for 'debriefing' within the next few days.

A source said that Dr Atta's family "has also refused to go to Saudi Arabia without him". Dr Atta, a PhD in physics and recipient of Sitara-i-Imtiaz, has also been informed that he has been put on watch and plainclothes security personnel have been deployed at his G-10/1 residence, the source said.

KRL chairman Dr Javaid Ashraf Mirza was earlier stopped from travelling to Saudi Arabia for Haj. However, his family was allowed to go, but they refused to leave for Haj without Dr Mirza.