PESHAWAR, Feb 23: The Peshawar High Court has observed that every SHO is responsible for safety and liberty of citizens and even if an agency other than police picks up a citizen, the area SHO should know the name of such agency.

The bench made the observation while calling comments from government in two habeas-corpus petitions.

The petitions, filed by Maulana Muhammad Bashir and Fazalullah Khan, fathers of detainees Sattar Khan and Ziaullah respectively came up for hearing before a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Qaim Jan Khan on Thursday.

It was submitted on behalf of the petitioners that their sons were picked by an intelligence agency from within the territorial jurisdiction of Badabher police station on Jan 3 and since then their whereabouts were unknown.

However, SHO of the PS, who was present on court notice, expressed his ignorance and submitted that neither his PS had arrested them nor was aware about their detention.

The bench took exception of ‘mysterious’ disappearance of the sons of the petitioners and while reprimanding the SHO, observed that it was his duty to be aware of such incidents happening within his jurisdiction.

The bench observed that it was strange that people went missing and the SHOs concerned were not aware of these cases. It was further observed that every SHO was responsible for the safety and liberty of an individual and even if police had not arrested the detainees, the SHO should have been aware the name of arresting agency.

Advocate Farooq Adam Khan appeared for the petitioners and submitted that the manner in which people were being picked nowadays created an apprehension that one day he would also go missing.

He argued that the detainees had neither been produced before any court of law nor their families informed of their whereabouts.