PESHAWAR, March 31: District and Sessions Judge Hayat Ali Shah on Monday took exception to the non-appearance of an SHO in a case of a juvenile offender and directed that he should be present in the court on next hearing.

The SHO of Pishtakhara police station, Shakirullah Bangash, was appearing before the court due to security reasons as he was also charged in a murder case of a union Nazim.

The court directed that the SHO, who is complainant in a drug case against a juvenile offender, Sagheer Khan, should appear before the court on April 15 and proper security measures should be adopted on that day.

The court observed that the accused had been languishing in prison and the trial could not be concluded due to non-appearance of the prosecution witness.

The judge observed that the accused should not suffer due to non-appearance of the police.

The accused was arrested by officials of the Pishtakhara police station and from his possession they had allegedly recovered two kilogramme of heroin.

In September last, the union Nazim of Pishtakhara, Fayyaz Khalil, was killed during a protest demonstration of the inhabitants of the area against loadshedding.

The relatives of the deceased had charged Mr Bangash and an ASP, Dar Ali Khattak for the death of the Nazim.