PESHAWAR, Aug 26: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday put the NWFP advocate-general on notice in a habeas corpus petition challenging detention of a citizen allegedly by an intelligence agency.

The petition has been filed by Abdul Sattar, brother of Abdul Basit, a mobile mechanic who, according to the petitioner, was arrested from Kochi Bazaar area on Aug 7. None of the law-enforcement agencies has conceded that Mr Basit was picked up by them.

Advocate Khurshid Shahan appeared before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi and contended that the detention was illegal and unconstitutional.

He said Mr Basit was picked up by some persons travelling in an official jeep which carried wireless sets. He said his relatives had visited the concerned Kabuli police station, but the officials there did not provide any help to them.

The police, he added, had also not been registering the FIR against the unknown persons who had taken away his brother. The petitioner stated that his brother had nothing to do with any religious, militant or sectarian group. He requested the high court to issue directions to the departments concerned for the production of his brother.