PESHAWAR, Feb 23: An activist of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Nadir Khan advocate, has been shifted to an unidentified location in Punjab after his arrest on Saturday.

While the local police denied his arrest, family members of Nadir Khan feared he might be killed in a fake police encounter in Punjab. The local police had been searching for Mr Khan in connection with some high-profile cases, including the killing of the banned Tehrik-i-Jaffria Pakistan vice-chairman, Anwer Ali Akhundzada, and AIG of Traffic Farooq Haider.

Officials of the West Cantonment police station, however, have expressed ignorance about his arrest. Sources in the local police claimed that sleuths of the Punjab police picked Mr Khan from a place near Sunehri Masjid on Saturday. At that time his family members were also with him. However, they were not touched.

The mother and brother of Mr Khan claimed that he was falsely implicated in these cases. They said the Punjab police would kill him in a fake encounter just like dozens of other activists were killed.

An office-bearer of the banned SSP told Dawn that Nadir Khan, who was a resident of Jhangi Mohalla, was no longer associated with the party. He said Nadir Khan remained a party activist till 1991. Later he joined a cigarette manufacturing company.

The SSP official claimed when Farooq Haider was killed a few years back the police also launched a campaign to arrest Nadir Khan due to which he went into hiding.