KARACHI, June 17: Hearing of the petition filed by Najma Mehmood, wife of Mehmood Fattani one of the four people taken into custody in connection with the discovery of a decomposed human body from a farmland on Super Highway, could not proceed on Monday as the Sindh government’s law officer sought time for filing the home secretary’s comments.

Counsel Khawaja Naveed Ahmed had filed a constitutional petition on behalf of Najma Mehmood challenging the detention of four persons, from whose family farmland decomposed pieces of a human body, suspected to be of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s, were recovered.

The bench comprised the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, and Justice Musheer Alam.

When the matter came up AAG Sindh prayed for more time to obtain the provincial government’s comments. The court obliged him and fixed the matter for June 21.

The petitioner’s husband, his two brothers and their brother-in-law were arrested by armed police during a raid on her family house during the night of May 28/29.

She has complained that ten days have passed but until now neither police have released them nor produced them in a court of law.

The petitioner’s husband, her brother-in-law and Mr Ismail are in illegal custody of the investigating team of the Daniel Pearl case, she had claimed.

On June 10 the government had denied that police had raided the house of Mehmood Fattani or had picked him up along with three others, in connection with the recovery of a decomposed body.

The advocate-general had filed written reply signed by the senior superintendent of police, Investigation-II, in which it was claimed that the respondents had not raided the petitioner’s house.

The respondents had stated that “no one has been arrested, so there is no ground for their production before the court.”

It was also submitted that nobody was in illegal custody at investigation centre in the Daniel Pearl case as this case had been challaned in the anti- terrorism court at Hyderabad, and the proceedings of the case were almost complete.

After the adjournment on Monday, ladies of the Fattani family told reporters, in the chamber of their counsel, that their menfolk had been arrested by police, and they were concerned about their safety.

Those who spoke at the news conference included Najma Fattani, Kausar Ismail and Gul Bano Hameed. They appealed to the Sindh High Court and other high-ups to take serious notice of the mater as life and security of innocent persons were involved.

They expressed no knowledge about the whereabouts of Maulana Saood as he lived separately, and said if police required him in any case, then action should be taken against him and court should be approached.

They claimed that on the night when police officials had raided their house, they had assured that their menfolk would be questioned by army officers and would be sent home by 10 in the morning. But instead of doing so, they had denied their custody.

The ladies appealed to the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court to take notice of the matter.