PESHAWAR, Oct 4: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the provincial government to produce the autopsy report of three detainees, who died in an alleged encounter with security forces.

The government was told to exhume the bodies for autopsy if the said medical procedure wasn’t performed on them.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Shahjehan Khan Akhunzada, who were hearing a habeas corpus petition, also directed the defence ministry to produce the security forces’ inquiry report, if any, about the alleged encounter, which left three detainees and two security officials dead, and fixed the next hearing for Oct 30.

They observed that security forces claimed that detainees snatched a rifle from a sepoy on Intelligence Battalion’s premises before trying to flee and there the said encounter took place.

Petitioner Haji Mir Rehman, a senior lawyer, had challenged the alleged illegal detention of his son, Abdul Samad Khan, by security forces.

His lawyer Razaullah Khan said Mr Abdul Samad was picked up by security agencies on Oct 3, 2011 from the jurisdiction of Peshawar’s east cantonment police station.

He said after he filed the petition, his client received the body of his detained son with security forces informing it that he died in an encounter while trying to flee.

The lawyer asked when security forces earlier denied Mr Abdul Samad’s arrest, how they would justify his detention.

The FIR of the said incident was registered at west cantonment police station on Aug 6, 2012, on the complaint of Intelligence Battalion’s Captain Tahir Hafeez.

He said Mohammad Haroon, Waliur Rehman and Abdul Samad were kept in temporary custody for transportation to notified internment centre.

He alleged that the three detainees snatched a rifle from the guard and began firing, leading to an encounter with security forces, which killed them all.

He added that two officials, Nadir Ali and Sajid Farooq, were also killed in the encounter.

The bench observed that as such, a serious incident had taken place and security forces might have conducted an inquiry into it and the inquiry report, if any, should be produced before it.