The then Pakistani president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, after being introduced to the nuclear scientist at Karachi, ordered that he be put under virtual house arrest.

Khan was shifted from Karachi to a place about 100 km from the city. Here, Khan worked at a nuclear centre, staying away from his wife and children for months at a stretch.

The Pakistan government at one time feared that Khan may be kidnapped by the Americans or people from some other country, some of his relatives here said.

Khan was the chief accused in a case filed in the International Court at The Hague against Pakistan for clandestinely trying to bring in uranium from the West for nuclear research purposes. However, the Pakistan government did not give him permission to travel to TheHague.

A few years back, in an interview to PTV, Khan had said, "I was born in Bhopal. I studied the Quran Sharif in the local mohalla masjid. I still remember the days when my father used to take me to school on his bicycle."

He also recalled that many of his relatives lived in the Moti Masjid, Budhwara and Itwara areas of the city.

In those days the lanes of these localities used to be full of dust, he said adding it was a pleasure to go through them on a tonga.

The nuclear scientist's ancestral house still stands in Bhopal.