PESHAWAR, July 25: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday disposed of a habeas corpus petition challenging detention of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee by an intelligence agency after the government informed that he had now been booked under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and the Foreigners Act.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Said Maroof Khan was informed by NWFP advocate-general Pir Liaqat that detainee Abdur Raheem Muslim Dost had been booked by the tribal administration of Landi Kotal tehsil (Khyber Agency) under section 40 FCR and section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

He said that the detainee was shifted to the Peshawar central prison on July 21 and the assistant political agent of Landi Kotal would conduct his trial.

The bench was hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by Sayed Mohammad, elder brother of the detainee.

The petition said that he was picked up by officials of the Criminals Investigation Department and the ISI on September 29, 2006, from Academy Town when he was returning back home after offering Friday prayer.

Following the statement given by the AG, the bench decided that the petition was filed for knowing the whereabouts of the detainee and now as he was in prison, the petition had become irrelevant.

Advocate Fazal Illahi Khan, appearing for the petitioner, said the case had been pursued by vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Kamran Arif, and as he was out of the country, he would represent the detainee.

Mr Illahi said that the detainee had been kept in detention for about nine months and the bench should seek explanation regarding that.

He said that he was never produced before any court of law which was an unconstitutional act.

He said that the detainee was first kept in detention and then moved to the tribal areas in illegal manner and handed over to the tribal administration by intelligence agencies.

The detainee and his younger brother Badruzzaman Badr were earlier arrested by the military authorities on November 17, 2001 from their home in Peshawar.

They were handed over to American authorities on February 8, 2002 and after remaining in custody at Bagram and Kandahar reached Guantanamo Detention Facility on May 1, 2002.

They were released from Guantanamo Bay after remaining in incarceration for few years.

Last year the detainee and his brother co-authored a book “Da Guantanamo Mate Zolanae” (The broken shackles of Guantanamo).