A Pakistani embassy worker kidnapped in Iraq this month has been released unharmed, Pakistan said on Sunday. Malik Mohammad Javed, an assistant at the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad, went missing on April 9. Al Jazeera television later aired a videotape of him in which he called on Pakistan to help secure his release. "Malik Javed, who was kidnapped in Iraq, has been released. I have just talked to his wife and family," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters.

The officials said earlier they believed the kidnappers' motive was ransom, not politics, but they declined to say if ransom had been demanded.

Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said Javed would be returning home shortly. "As a result of efforts made by the government of Pakistan, he has been released," said Jilani. "He is absolutely fine and will be returning in a day or two."

Jilani declined to give any more details. Malik Javed's son, Bilal, said the family was delighted: "I'm so happy, I don't know what to do," he told Reuters.

"The Prime Minister called us. He said father has reached the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad safely," Bilal said later.

A day after Javed went missing, a man called the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad saying he belonged to a group called Omar bin Khattab and it was holding Javed.

Copyright Reuters, 2005