KARACHI, Oct 20: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Thursday hearing of a petition against alleged detention of Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammad to enable a federal attorney to obtain information from the interior and foreign ministries.

Petitioner Mariam Bibi, Khalid’s sister, submitted through Advocate Ghulam Qadir Jatoi that her brother had been arrested by a federal law enforcement agency and was still in custody. The foreign minister said in a statement reported by the press on August 23 that Khalid was in custody within the country and that he had not been handed over to the US. Army major Adil Qudoosi, from whose house in Rawalpindi the detainee was picked up in February 2003, the counsel said, had been convicted by a military court along with five other military officers for links with extremists. Khalid was taken into custody together with the petitioner’s son, Ammar, an alleged financier of Al Qaeda, and other relatives.

Federal government counsel Syed Mahmood A. Rizvi informed a division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Azizullah M. Memon, that he had sought information about the detainee from the interior and foreign ministers in pursuance of its order on the last date of hearing.

There was no reply and he needed more time to obtain information from the two ministries, he said.

The bench allowed his request and adjourned the hearing to Nov 10.