PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday disposed of two habeas corpus petitions about ‘disappearance’ of four people after the government claimed that they had not been detained by any intelligence agency.

A bench comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem observed that the petitioners could file fresh petitions if they could ascertain whereabouts of the missing people.

Deputy Attorney-General Salahuddin Khan, appearing for the Intelligence Bureau and the Inter-Services Intelligence, told the bench that he had contacted the interior and defence ministries and he had been informed that the four had not been in the custody of any of the two agencies.

The officials of the Swat police, who had been accused of taking the men into custody and handing them over to an intelligence agency, had refuted during the last hearing the claims made by the petitioners.

Safdar Ali of Shagai village of Matta tehsil had stated in his petition that his 70-year-old brother Mian Syed Laiq, his son Ziauddin and nephew Syed Mohammad Shah had been arrested by Swat police with the collaboration of officials of the ISI and the IB on Nov 11, 2006, from their village and taken to an unknown place.

Mian Haleem Shah, brother of alleged detainee Mohammad Yousaf, had alleged in his petition that on Nov 24, the Matta DSP summoned his brother on telephone to his office. When his brother went to the office with one Safdar Ali, the DSP detained him and told Mr Ali to leave.