PESHAWAR, Jan 5: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday put on notice three officers of the local police and correspondents of two local newspapers in a habeas corpus petition challenging alleged illegal detention of a person for the last 20 days.

A single bench of Justice Azmatullah Malik fixed Jan 12 for next hearing with the direction that the respondents, including the superintendent of police (cantt), assistant superintendent of police, SHO of West Cantt police station and correspondents of the two Urdu dailies, should clarify their position.

A PAF employee, Syed Munsifat Shah, filed the petition, stating that his son, Syed Ashfaq Shah, was taken into custody by the SP, ASP and SHO near Sarki Gate on Dec 16, 2011 and since then his whereabouts was not known.

Counsel for the petitioner, Moazam Butt advocate, contended that Mr Ashfaq was doing property business and on the day of occurrence he had gone to Shad Service Station for his car wash.

He said that a police party comprising different officials in plainclothes picked Mr Ashfaq from the service station and on the next day a story about his arrest appeared in two Urdu dailies.

Mr Butt stated that in the story the correspondents had quoted the SP (Cantt), Dr Mian Saeed, to have arrested the detainee on the charges of trying to commit a robbery at a moneychanger’s shop.

He said that the detainee had neither been produced before any court nor any FIR was registered against him. He stated that the newspapers could have filed the story only when the detainee was in police custody.

Meanwhile, the bench directed Pishtakhara police SHO Fazle Wahid to submit an affidavit in another case of illegal detention of a person, Qaiser Khan, for the last few weeks.

Mr Wahid told the court that he was not aware of the case, as he was not the SHO of Pishtakhara police station when Mr Qaiser was taken into custody.