PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has sought comments from the interior secretary and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police on the petition of a former University of Peshawar employee against the implication of his son in an alleged fabricated explosives case.

After holding preliminary hearing into the petition, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali directed the respondents in the case, including the interior secretary, KP IGP, commandant of Peshawar Campus Peace Corps and SHO of Campus Police Station to file comments within a fortnight.

In the petition, former curator of the Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Zabihullah Khan, said his son, Wasihullah, was a ‘missing person’ and was later implicated in a concocted case by the counter-terrorism department in Mardan.

He prayed the court to order the quashing of the FIR against his son, order the registration of FIR against the relevant official for illegal detention of his son, and issue directions for departmental action against the culpable police officials.

Malik Ajmal Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client belonged to a respectable family and was a former official of the University of Peshawar.

He added that his son, Wasihullah, had done his matriculation and also studied theology.

The lawyer said on July 22, 2017, the law-enforcement agencies had raided his client’s house situated at the Professors Colony University Campus and had taken away Wasihullah.

He added that the relevant officials had told the petitioner that they’re taking his son away for questioning and would set him free soon.

The lawyer said after the detainee was not freed, his client had lodged a complaint on Aug 10 with the Campus Police Station, which was registered in the daily diary.

He added that the petitioner later approached the SSP complaining that the police had not registered facts in the daily diary as they had only mentioned that the young man was missing instead of mentioning that he was taken away by the law-enforcement agencies.

The lawyer said the petitioner was later informed that his son would be produced before an anti-terrorism court in Mardan on Oct 21.

He added that when his client and other relatives visited the court, they found out that Wasihullah had been charged in an FIR registered on Oct 18 by the CTD.

The lawyer said the CTD had claimed in the ‘concocted’ case that Wasihullah and another person were taken into custody and from their possession five kilogrammes of explosive material and a hand grenade were recovered.

He added that the two were charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Explosive Substance Act.

The lawyer said Wasihullah was first kept in illegal detention for three months and then booked in a baseless case.

He said when the law-enforcement agencies had discovered that the detainee was innocent, they should have set him free instead of booking him in a concocted case.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2017