PESHAWAR, April 5: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the district police officer (DPO) of Karak to recover a teenaged girl allegedly taken away by the local police and later handed over to an army official.

Ms Bilqees, the girl's mother, has alleged that her 16-year-old daughter, Uzma Ayub, a student of ninth class, was kidnapped by police officials including SHO Pir Mohsin Shah, sub-inspector Hakeem Khan and Amir Muhammad in an illegal raid on her house. She had sent an application to Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan who converted it into a writ petition around two months ago.

The DPO, Sajid Khan Mohmand, appeared before the court and contended that on the complaint of the female the police had registered an FIR at the concerned Takht-i-Nusrati police station in Karak on Sept 25.

He stated that they had raided several places but could not recover the girl. He added that four persons earlier charged by the complainant were granted bail by a local court.

A brother of the alleged kidnapped girl, Alamzeb Khan, stated that they had learnt that his sister was taken to Quetta by an army personnel, Naseebullah Khan. He stated that although they had named him but the local police did not arrest him. He stated that the local police had also implicated him in different cases.

The DPO stated that the complainant had not charged the said person in her initial statement.

The bench directed the DPO to record supplementary statement of the complainant and make efforts for recovery of the girl. NOTICE ISSUED:

The high court put on notice the secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly in a writ petition challenging promotion of a junior chef on the post of senior cook while allegedly bypassing a senior person.

The petition is filed by a cook of the assembly, Niaz Muhammad, stating that he had been functioning in scale 8 as cook in the assembly.