PESHAWAR, Aug 12: The Peshawar High Court on Friday directed the deputy attorney general of Pakistan to contact the federal interior ministry and intelligence agencies and file a report regarding the whereabouts of four detainees, including two sisters suspected of plotting suicide attacks in Karachi, within four days.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Fazalur Rehman and Justice Dost Muhammad turned down a requested made by DAG Salahuddin Khan for allowing him a 15 to 20 days time for this purpose.

The bench took exception to his request and observed that this was a writ petition in the nature of habeas corpus and even a single day should not be wasted by the respondents. The bench observed that picking a person in such a manner and keeping him or her incommunicado amounted to kidnapping.

Justice Rehman observed that it was an age of science and technology and asked the DAG to contact the government through telephone. After some time, the DAG turned up again and informed the court that he had tried to contact the concerned official of the interior ministry on telephone but in vain.

The petition has been filed by one Hameed Khan, father-in-law of Arifa Baloch, one of the two detained sisters. Her sister Saba Baloch had a suckling baby at the time of their arrest from Swat on June 4.

Father of the sisters, Sher Muhammad Baloch, who is a respondent in the petition, has claimed that his daughters were innocent. They, in fact, were abducted a year ago from Karachi. He has stated that he came to know about them through news papers when they were arrested from Swat.

The government had claimed that the sisters belonged to Karachi and they were given training of suicide bombing by their maternal uncle Gul Hassan, an activist of proscribed organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The court on Friday reprimanded the DAG and asked him to properly assist the court instead of unnecessarily defending the federal government.

Counsel for petitioner Khursheed Ahmad Shahan contended that the detainees were picked from Swat and this fact was admitted by the government. He argued that continuous detention without production before any court was illegal and unconstitutional.

The bench observed that the next division-bench day would be Tuesday (Aug 16) and the DAG should file written report till that date.

The court observed that if the government expressed ignorance regarding the whereabouts of the detainees and later on it was found out that they were in the custody of a government agency then strict action would be taken in accordance with law.

An official of the Khwazakhela police station in district Swat also appeared and stated that they had no knowledge of any raid in the jurisdiction of their police station.

The court criticised performance of the NWFP police observing that the police facilitates arrests by intelligence agencies but often expresses ignorance.

The bench observed that even if the police were not present at the time of the arrest of the detainees it was their responsibility to trace them now.