PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday sought the postmortem report and other relevant record from Punjab’s home department about the killing of a ‘missing person’ in a police encounter in Raiwind by dubbing him an Al-Qaeda militant over three months ago.

Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth directed additional advocate general Mujahid Ali to ensure that the relevant record was submitted in the court by the Punjab home department.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed last year by Mohammad Ismail against the alleged illegal detention of her son, Khan Wahid.

As the petition was pending decision by the high court, detainee Khan Wahid was killed by the Punjab police in Raiwind on March 30, 2016, in a police encounter.

Khalid Khan Afridi, lawyer for the petitioner, said during the previous hearing, the court had sought the relevant record from Punjab police but the same had so far not been produced.

He said while the detainee was killed in a fake encounter, the Punjab police had not been providing the postmortem report to the petitioner.

Khan Wahid was killed by Punjab police in Raiwind in March

The lawyer said the killed detainee was a BCom student at a local college.

He said on May 5, 2015, scores of personnel of different law-enforcement agencies had raided house of the petitioner in Afridi Garhi area of Peshawar and had taken away the deceased.

The lawyer said the deceased was later taken into custody but his whereabouts remained untraced.

He said the petitioner had filed the petition last year and apprehended that his son might be killed in custody and those apprehensions later proved correct as hands of his son were tied when he was killed in a cold-blooded manner in the ‘fake’ encounter.

The Punjab police had claimed on Mar 30 that they had killed five members of Al-Qaeda at Nawab Town area near Raiwind in Lahore during a raid on a house after receiving credible information.

They had alleged that as soon as the police team reached the house, they came under fire by the terrorists, and in retaliatory action, the terrorists were killed. It was alleged that the killed persons were involved in multiple high profile acts of terrorism.

PETITIONS ADJOURNED: The bench adjourned hearing into two petitions filed by former provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi against his arrest by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on different grounds.

In one of the petitions, Mr. Afridi, who is an MPA and was arrested on July 9 last year, challenged inquiries and investigations against him by two officials of the commission, who he insisted were not competent under the law.

In the other petition, he has challenged the appointment of the then director general of the commission saying the DG had to be appointed by the Ehtesab commission comprising of five commissioners, but he was appointed prior to the appointment of the commissioners.

Abdul Lateef Afridi, Khalid Khan Afridi and Shumail Ahmad Butt, lawyers for the petitioner, said the inquiry of mines and minerals was initiated by two officials, including Sahibzada Behram and Nawab Khan, on May 20, 2015, and at that time, the two weren’t even the KPEC employees.

KPEC deputy prosecutor general Zahid Aman said earlier, the previous petitions of Mr. Afridi seeking his release on bail were heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.

He added that the said bench had dismissed his plea on merit and the same was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Initially, the petitioner was charged with carrying out illegal postings and transfers and facilitating illegal mining in the province. Later, he was booked in two other cases accusing him of facilitating illegal extension in lease of a lessee of chromite mines in Charsadda and facilitating illegal mining of phosphate in Abbottabad.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2016