FBI agents quiz surgeon 'who treated Bin Laden'

A prominent Lahore surgeon has been detained by Pakistani intelligence and reportedly interrogated by FBI agents, who suspect him of treating Osama Bin Laden for a kidney ailment and helping wounded Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters escape from Afghanistan.

The arrest of Dr Amir Aziz, after allegations that he supplied anthrax spores and biochemical weapons formulae to Islamist terrorists, has galvanised mullahs in parliament to speak out against President Pervez Musharraf's co-operation with the war on terrorism. Members of the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal Islamic coalition denounced FBI activity in Pakistan as a breach of sovereignty.

Another new MP, the former cricketer Imran Khan, has been a friend of Dr Aziz since the doctor began treating the national cricket team 13 years ago. He said he would raise the surgeon's arrest with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "If there are charges, he should be brought before our own courts of law," Mr Khan told reporters.

Dr Nasrullah Chaudhry, a colleague of Dr Aziz at the Gurkhi Trust Hospital, said "the doctor did not hide that he had been treating the Taliban". For the past four months, he added, Dr Aziz had been repeatedly questioned by law enforcement officials, always accompanied by foreigners identified by police as FBI agents. He is also said to have instructed Kashmiri militants in battlefield surgery.