PESHAWAR, Feb 22: A Hangu resident missing for over 10 months is in the custody of a security agency and will soon be shifted to a notified internment centre in the province, deputy advocate general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand told the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday.

During a hearing into a habeas corpus case, Mr Mohmand told a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Azmatullah Malik that missing Janat Kareem had been traced in the custody of a security agency and would soon be moved to an internment centre in the province.

Earlier, the federal and provincial governments expressed ignorance about his whereabouts.

Mr Kareem's wife Tahira and brother Gul Shireen had filed the petition saying their relative, a motorcycle seller, was arrested by Doaba police station personnel in Hangu on March 28, 2011 before being handed over to security forces.

Attiqur Rehman, counsel for petitioners, said agencies had denied Mr Kareem's custody and therefore, it should be told where he had been found.

The bench observed that the lawyer should appreciate as whereabouts of the alleged missing person had been known and that he had been detained under a law, Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011.

It later fixed the next hearing for March 13 directing Mr Mohmand to apprise it of progress in the case on the day.

Also in the day, the bench disposed of an enforced disappearance case after being informed about the return of the missing person, Kaleem Khan.

Amroze Khan, of Angoor Korona area in Peshawar, had moved the court saying his son was arrested on July 22, 2011, by officials of an intelligence agency before being kept at a detention centre in Peshawar.

The petitioner's lawyer, Mukhtiar Ali, informed the bench that the alleged missing person had returned home after being freed of late.

The chief justice regretted that the court used to pressure security agencies and law-enforcement agencies for production of missing persons but once they were freed, they never appeared before the court to apprise it of the place of their detention.In another case, the bench directed police to register an FIR of the kidnapping of a missing resident of Peshawar's Mathani area.

The petitioner, Abdul Ghani, said his brother, Abdul Wali Khan, was arrested by SHO of Badabher police station around 17 months ago and his whereabouts had been unknown since.

Deputy advocate general Alamgir Durrani informed the bench that police had denied the allegations of the arrest. Also, Mr Mohmand said the defence and interior ministries had given affidavits that the alleged missing person was not in the custody of any of the agencies functioning under their supervision.

The bench said once the case was registered, neither FIR should be cancelled nor should investigation in it be deferred until the man's recovery.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan expressed annoyance over delay in submission of the minutes of the apex committee's recent meeting on the missing person issue. The said committee comprised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, chief minister and Peshawar corps commander.

The bench directed DAG to ask the provincial home secretary to submit the minutes of the meeting without delay.

The chief justice questioned the government's failure to set up DNA testing facility in the province, saying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining Tribal Areas were the most terrorism-hit areas and that there was a dire need for such facility here.He made these observations during the hearing into a petition of a female resident of Gujranwala district, Ziarat Bibi, requesting recovery of her husband, Natol Khan, who had gone missing in Peshawar on October 28, 2009, the day a blast left over a 100 people dead near Meena Bazaar.

DSP (legal) Bashir Khan produced a complete list of blast victims but the name of Natol Khan was not on it.

He said eight bodies remained unidentified and were buried unclaimed. He said police didn't arrest the said man after the blast.

The bench inquired whether any DNA testing of those bodies had occurred. The official replied in negative prompting the bench to observe that for proper investigation, these things had to be channelised.

The hearing was later adjourned to March 24 with the court issuing directions for issuance of a notice to the petitioner for appearing before it on the day to say whom her husband visited in Peshawar and where before going missing.