PESHAWAR, Aug 22: The Peshawar High Court on Monday disposed of a writ petition challenging alleged illegal detention of four people, including two sisters suspected of plotting suicide attacks, after the interior ministry categorically denied having any information about their arrest.

A bench comprising Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem observed that the petitioner or any other aggrieved person could file a fresh petition if he received any information regarding the whereabouts of the alleged detainees.

Deputy Attorney-General Salahuddin Khan presented an affidavit submitted by a section officer of the interior ministry, Sohail Ahmad Sandhu, stating that the ministry had no knowledge about the arrest and detention of the four people.

The official claimed that neither the ministry nor any agency under its supervision was aware of the detention of the four people.

The petition was filed by Hameed Khan, father-in-law of one of the sisters, Arifa Baloch. He had challenged the detention of his son, Bilal Ahmad, wife, Gul Hamdana, Arifa Baloch and her sister Saba Baloch, wife of Asif. Saba Baloch has a baby with her.

The two sisters and their two relatives were allegedly picked by officials of an intelligence agency on June 4 from Swat and the news of their arrest appeared in national newspapers on June 10.

The government had claimed that the sisters belonging to Karachi had been given training of suicide bombing by their uncle Gul Hassan, who belonged to the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

During the proceedings on Monday, the bench observed that if the petitioner or any aggrieved person had any knowledge about who had arrested the detainees, the court would take cognizance of it.

It observed that in the current circumstances the court could not proceed further.

Father of the sisters, Sher Mohammad Baloch, who is a bank officer, appeared in the court and stated that his daughters were kidnapped last year from Karachi and he had lodged a complaint with a police station in Lyari on June 30, 2004.

Mr Baloch stated that he did not know the petitioner and was also not aware his daughters’ whereabouts since there disappearance.

He said his brother-in-law Gul Hassan was a member of a defunct organization and he had been awarded death sentence in connection with the bombing of Imambargah Ali Raza in Karachi.

He said he had declined to help Mr Hassan during his detention. “On June 29, 2004, Gul Hassan’s wife took my two daughters on the pretext of taking them to their grandmother’s house,” he stated, adding: “Since then my daughters have been missing and I came to know about their arrest from newspapers and a private television channel.”

At the outset of the proceedings the deputy attorney-general raised objection that the petitioner had never appeared in the court. The bench ordered that the petitioner should appear in person.

The petitioner appeared in the court later and stated that he did not know when his son had married Arifa Baloch and where they had met.

He said he had received a call from his son from Swat requesting that his wife should visit Swat in connection with an emergency. The petitioner said that later he came to know that his relatives had been arrested in Swat.

Advocate Shahnawaz Khan appeared for Mr Baloch and advocate Khursheed Ahmad Shahan represented the petitioner.