PESHAWAR, June 9: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday put Capital City Police Chief Masood Paracha on notice in a contempt of court petition relating to non-registration of an FIR against police officials involved in the killing of a boy in a fake police encounter lodged at Bana Mari police station.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan and Justice Ijaz Afzal, also directed the SHO of Bana Mari police station to appear on June 16. The bench admitted for full hearing the petition filed by Misal Khan, father of the victim Kashmir Khan.

The high court had accepted a writ petition of Misal Khan on May 11 and directed the police to register an FIR against four officers - SHO Abdul Malik Khan, ASI Shehanshah Khan and two constables, Khaista Gul and Zahir Shah - under Section 302 of the PPC.

However, the police had been reluctant to register the FIR which left Misal Khan with no option but to file a contempt of court petition. The petitioner's counsel contended that the police had been committing blatant contempt of the high court.

He requested the court to take action against the officials concerned under the contempt of court law. The four officials were serving at the Bana Mari police station at the time of the incident on May 15, 2002.

The petitioner had stated that the police claimed to have killed his son in an encounter. The police also claimed that the dead person was a known anti-social element Qaseem Wardak, but later it was proved wrong.

Two days after the incident, Misal Khan at a press conference claimed that the dead person was not Qasim Wardak but his son Kashmir Khan, who was a ninth class student. After the incident, district and sessions judge Ziauddin Khattak conducted an inquiry in which it was proved that the police had staged a fake encounter.