PESHAWAR, Jan 17: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the SHO of the Charbagh police (Swat) to trace out whereabouts of a man allegedly picked by an intelligence agency more than 15 months ago. A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Saleem Khan, gave one week to the SHO, Arsala Khan, to investigate the disappearance of Mohammad Shafiq, and fixed Jan 26 for next hearing.

The bench took exception to the statement of the SHO that he was not deputed at the Charbagh police station when Mr Shafiq was allegedly picked from that area.

The court asked his father, Mohammad Zarin, to record his report in the courtroom and directed the SHO to consider the report as the FIR. The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Mr Zarin.

“At that time you were not the SHO, but now you are there and you could not put forward any excuse,” Justice Pervez reprimanded the SHO.

The petitioner in his report stated that his son was picked on Sept 28, 2004, by officials of an intelligence agency with the support of the local police from his cloth store in a busy bazaar of the Charbagh area. He added that his son was picked amidst presence of dozens of persons who were willing to give undertaking regarding the occurrence.

The intelligence agency suspected that he was a member of the proscribed Jaish-i-Muhammad and involved in acts of terrorism.

The petitioner stated that they had visited police stations concerned, but the police had not been cooperating.

At the very out set of the proceedings on Tuesday, the bench reprimanded an inspector of the Charbagh police, Mohammad Ayaz Khan, who was not in uniform. The bench ordered him to immediately leave the courtroom.