PESHAWAR: A retired banker and lifetime chairman of Habib Bank Employees Union (CBA), Aurangzeb Khan, was picked up on Saturday afternoon by intelligence agency officials from a house in Hayatabad Township.

The officials, in plain-clothes, acquired back-up security personnel from Hayatabad police station for a raid.

The officials approached a house at about 2pm and called out Mr Khan, who retired from service in early 2005. He was whisked away by the agency officials and the policemen were told that their role had ended.

The agency officials did not say why Mr Aurangzeb had been picked up. But a police official told Dawn that he was suspected of having “uttered some insulting words about President General Pervez Musharraf in a telephonic conversation with a person in Saudi Arabia”.

When the concerned Hayatabad police station was contacted they expressed ignorance about the incident.

MEETING HELD: The Habib Bank Employees Union held an emergency meeting on Sunday under the chairmanship of its president, Ali Gohar Khan, to express its concern over the arrest of Mr Aurangzeb.

The meeting stated that Mr Aurangzeb was an honest official and had never indulged in any anti-state activity.

The participants requested President Musharraf to order his release as he belonged to an upright family. They said that his arrest was probably the result of a misunderstanding.