PESHAWAR, Feb 7: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ordered judicial inquiry into the alleged illegal detention and torturing of a fifth grader by police.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth directed the Peshawar district and sessions judge to conduct the inquiry and ensure action against the culpable officials.

The directions were issued during the hearing into a habeas corpus petition filed by Mamala against the ‘illegal detention’ of her son, Iqbal Hussain, a student of a Peshawar private school.

While the petition was pending with the court, the boy was freed by police.

Wearing school uniform, he appeared before the court on Tuesday and said he was taken into custody by officials of Hayatabad police station near a checkpoint.

He alleged that he was severely tortured in custody fracturing one of his legs and ribs. He claimed that he remained under treatment at a hospital.

An additional SHO of Hayatabad police station appeared and expressed ignorance about the boy’s detention and torture.

The chief justice reprimanded him and asked him what impression the little boy would carry about police for the rest of his life.

He said looking at the callous attitude of police, it appeared appropriate that such officials should be detained at Mach Jail, the infamous prison of Balochistan.

Khan Askar Afridi, counsel for the petitioner, said police arrested the schoolboy’s father and demanded bribe for his release before detaining the child to pressure the family.

He said a bailiff raided the checkpost where the boy was detained but he had already been moved out of it.

The lawyer said the boy was freed after the petition was filed with the court. He said police later booked the boy’s father in a false drugs smuggling case.

Also, the court disposed of another habeas corpus petition after being informed about the return of Bacha Khan, a resident of Shabqadar area in Charssada district, almost three years after enforced disappearance.

It also gave the defence ministry more time to trace two brothers allegedly taken away by security agencies from Nowshera district at the request of deputy attorney general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand.