KARACHI, June 15: A Sindh High Court division bench gave the ministries of interior and defence two weeks to submit a categorical statement that a detainee was neither arrested nor held in custody by any of the agencies working under them.

Twenty-year-old Affan Laghari’s mother alleged that her son was picked up by some agency personnel early in mid-2005. He had been kept in confinement since.

The police and Rangers submitted their replies, saying the alleged detainee was neither held nor kept by them. The interior ministry also denied ordering the alleged detention.

A division bench, comprising Justice M. Mujibullah Siddiqui and Mohammad Athar Saeed, said the government was responsible for ascertaining the whereabouts of a missing citizen even if it had not ordered his arrest or detention. It asked the two federal ministries to submit comprehensive and categorical replies on behalf of all the agencies working under them.