PESHAWAR, Sept 26: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court here on Thursday directed the Bannu District police to produce before the court 24 bonded labourers, including women and children, who are allegedly detained by a brick kiln’s owner.

The bench, comprising Justice Khalida Rachied and Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan, also summoned the owner, Haji Akhter Zaman, to the court on Oct 1.

The court issued the order in a habeas corpus petition filed by a labourer, Taweez Khan, stating that Mr Zaman had been keeping four families in the illegal confinement.

The bench directed the SHO concerned of Dasakhel police station, Bannu, who had appeared on a court’s notice, to positively produce the detainees on the next date.

Advocate Qazi Abdul Basit had appeared for the petitioner, and told the court that the wife and four children of the petitioner were among the detainees.

He contended that they had been kept in inhuman conditions as the power and water supply to the quarters in which they had been kept was cut.

Mr Basit claimed that the owner neither allowed them to leave their quarters adjacent to the brick kiln nor paid them for the labour.

The petitioner claimed that supervisor of the labourers had escaped, and as he was indebted to the owner, therefore Mr Zaman had held the innocent people hostage.

The owner had claimed that after he had recovered the entire amount outstanding against the supervisor, the detainees would be freed.