PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday summoned the NWFP advocate-general and the deputy attorney-general in a petition challenging the alleged illegal detention of a man by an intelligence agency for more than eight months.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani took up for preliminary hearing the petition filed by Hazrat Hussain, an uncle of the detainee, Umer Zaib.

The respondents in the petition are the ministry of defence, ministry of interior, the provincial home department, district police officer of Lower Dir and the SHO of the Balambut police station, Dir.

Shahnawaz Khan represented the petitioner. He contended that the detention of Mr Zaib, a mason aged about 25 years, was illegal and unconstitutional because he had not been produced in any court.

He said the SHO had sent Mr Zaib a message on Dec 5, 2006, to visit the police station and when he went there he was detained. Later, he was handed over to an intelligence agency, the counsel said.

The petitioner said when they visited the police station for the release of the detainee the SHO told them to produce the detainee’s brother, Hafeezullah, who had gone for ‘jihad’ to Afghanistan after Sept 11, 2001.

He said they informed police that they were not aware of Hafeezullah’s whereabouts. The SHO then informed the petitioner that the detainee had been handed over to an intelligence agency.

He said the whereabouts of Mr Zaib were still not known.