Friends and supporters of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Sunday they would launch a nation-wide campaign to press for his release from detention. Khan, revered by many people as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was placed under house arrest in Islamabad in 2004 soon after a televised confession to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
"He should be released and allowed to live as a free citizen. He hasn't committed any crime. He's the one person who gave us strength, respectability and security," Hussam-ul-Haque, chairman of Khan's Release Liaison Committee, told a news conference.