PESHAWAR, Feb 10: The ministry of interior expressed before the Peshawar High Court its ignorance about the illegal detention of two brothers by any of the intelligence agencies.

The ministry has filed comments in reply to a writ petition filed by a person Haji Enayat challenging the alleged illegal detention of his two sons, Abdul Basit and Abdul Aziz.

A two-member PHC bench comprising Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qaim Jan Khan on Thursday directed the deputy attorney general to inquire from the intelligence agencies regarding the whereabouts of the two detainees. The court fixed Feb 16 for next hearing.

The bench pointed out that earlier they had expressed ignorance about detention of another detainee, Liaqat Ali, and finally he was released during pendency of a writ petition filed by his mother, Fatima Bibi.

The interior ministry stated that it had inquired from the Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), but they had expressed ignorance about the detention of the two.

Advocate Khursheed Ahmad Shahan appeared for the petitioner and argued that the detainees were picked up from Dalazak Road on May 19, 2004.

He said their continuous detention was in violation of the constitutional guarantees regarding liberty of a person and production of an accused person before the court within 24 hours of his arrest.

Salahuddin Khan pointed out that earlier a petition was filed against the detention of Liaqat Ali and that was withdrawn during last hearing as he was not in custody of the agencies. He added that the ministry had given an affidavit that it was providing facts to the court.

Mr Shahan stated that they had withdrawn that petition as Liaqat Ali was released by the intelligence agency that had detained him. He said that they should release the two brothers in which case they would also withdraw the petition. He added that it was clear that Liaqat was in custody of an intelligence agency.