PESHAWAR, Dec 7: The Peshawar High Court on Friday issued notices to the defence and interior secretaries, provincial home secretary and other officials over the alleged enforced disappearance of the ‘handler’ of a would-be teenage suicide bomber arrested by police in the provincial capital lately.

The notices were issued by a bench comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth after preliminary hearing into a habeas corpus petition filed by Ahmad Jan, brother of the detainee Jehangir Khan.

The bench later fixed hearing into the case for Jan 9, 2013.Jehangir Khan was allegedly arrested by police along with teenage suicide bomber Bilal in the jurisdiction of Sarband police station on Nov 20, 2012. Several television channels had shown police arresting him and the bomber with an explosives filled vest. The vest was later defused by the bomb disposal squad.

After the arrest, police told reporters that Jehangir was the handler of Bilal, but the next day, they retracted their statement.

They even didn’t name Jehangir in the FIR.

Ziaul Haq, lawyer for the petitioner, said both suspects were shown on television after arrest and the alleged bomber was produced before an anti-terrorism court but Jehangir had yet to be produced before any court of law. He said the anti-terrorism court had taken notice of the issue and sought explanation from the Peshawar capital city police chief, who claimed that except Bilal, no other suspect over the matter was in police custody.

He added that Jehangir’s detention without production before any court of law was illegal and unconstitutional.

The respondents in the petition are the defence and interior secretaries, provincial home and tribal affairs secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police, political agent of Khyber Agency, station house officers of Sarband and Badabher police stations and others.

The petitioner, a soldier of Frontier Corps, said he belonged to Speen Qamar area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.

According to him, his brother, a second year student, was arrested near Faqir Kalae on Feb 15 this year. Later, he was handed over to the joint investigation team, which cleared him and handed him over to the administration of Khyber Agency, which detained him under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

The petitioner said the court later ordered the Khyber Agency administration to free Jehangir on bail so that he could appear in his examination. He added that his brother passed all papers except that of Pakistan Studies for which he didn’t sit examination.

The petitioner said Jehangir later appeared in the supplementary examination and that the results were awaited.

He claimed that the case against his brother was concocted by police in connivance with some of his rivals.