PESHAWAR, June 9: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday put on notice the deputy attorney-general in a petition challenging alleged illegal detention of a boy for more than a year. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Ejaz Afzal, directed the deputy attorney-general to appear on next hearing with information about whereabouts of the detainee, Adnan Khan.

The petition was filed by a resident of Jamrud, Khyber Agency, Abdul Qudoos, stating that his brother Adnan, a student of 10th class, had been arrested with some other people on Feb 12, 2004 on the suspicion of having links with Al-Qaeda and later handed over to an intelligence agency.

The petitioner’s counsel Habibur Rehman Afridi argued that according to the available record, the detainee had been in the custody of an intelligence agency for more than a year.

He contended that continuous detention of the boy was unconstitutional as he had neither been tried nor produced before any court.

Mr Afridi argued that the deputy attorney-general and the additional advocate-general had presented wrong information to the court in an earlier petition.

Earlier, a habeas corpus petition was filed by the petitioner in the high court which was dismissed as none of the officials of the intelligence agency and the political administration had conceded that Adnan had been arrested.

However, the court told the petitioner that if he got any proof regarding the whereabouts of the detainee, he could again move the court.

The petition, who had also filed an application before the tribal administration, received a reply from the tehsildar of Jamrud, mentioning that Adnan had been arrested by the administration and handed over to an intelligence agency.

On the basis of that information, the fresh habeas corpus petition was filed by the petitioner, stating that now it had been proved that his brother had been arrested.