QUETTA, March 16: A division bench of Balochistan High Court has issued notice to the officer incharge of Inter Services Intelligence, Balochistan, to produce two detainees, Tariq and Gohram, before the court on Thursday. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Akhtar Zaman Malghani, on Wednesday issued notice to the intelligence agency when an official of the sub-jail of Anti-Terrorist Force informed the court that ISI staff had taken the detainees with them.

The court appreciated the straightforwardness of the assistant superintendent of ATF sub-jail who had the courage to speak the truth. The petition praying release of the detainees had come up for hearing before the court on September 20 last year, and the counsel for the petitioners on Wednesday placed on record a copy of the order by the home department of Balochistan dated January 13, 2005, ordering release of the detainees.

The judges had directed deputy inspector-general of police, Quetta, and assistant superintendent of ATF to produce the detainees before the court at 11.30am on Wednesday. The jail official said that he had received a telephone call from an official of the ISI saying that they had learnt that the detainees were being released and that they would take them after they stepped out of jail.

The assistant superintendent further said that at about 3.15pm Gohram and Tariq stepped out of the prison and the members of the agency who had been standing there took the detainees with them.