PESHAWAR, Jan 14: The Peshawar High Court on Friday put the NWFP advocate-general and the deputy attorney-general on notice in a habeas corpus petition challenging the alleged detention of a student for about a year on charges of providing shelter to Al Qaeda suspects.

A bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem directed the assistant political agent and tehsildar of Jamrud to file comments in reply to the petition within a fortnight.

Relatives of the detainee, Adnan Khan, a matriculation student at a school in Jamrud, said in the petition that his whereabouts were not known since his arrest on Feb 12, 2004.

The respondents in the petition are: director, the Intelligence Bureau, Peshawar; director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence; the political agent of Khyber Agency and the assistant political agent and tehsildar of Jamrud tehsil.

Advocate Habibur Rehman Afridi appeared for the petitioner and contended that on the day of occurrence khasadars, administration officers and intelligence agencies' officials in plain clothes agencies raided the residence of the detainee and picked him as the elder members of the family were not available.