PESHAWAR, March 22: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into the killing of a person in an alleged fake police encounter as relatives of the deceased and police high-ups gave conflicting accounts of the occurrence.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk directed the Peshawar district and sessions judge to appoint an additional district and sessions judge, who should complete the inquiry within 30 days in accordance with the terms of reference formulated by the court.

Initially, a habeas corpus petition was filed by a woman, Meraj Bibi, challenging detention of her son Rahat Hussain by the local police. She claimed that the detainee was serving as watchman at Mustafa Town in Lahore and on Feb 15 he was arrested there by the police.

She alleged that a police party went to Lahore and brought the detainee to Peshawar after which he was kept in illegal detention.

Advocate Essa Khan appeared for the petitioner and said that against the illegal detention of the detainee the petition was filed on Feb 18 in which the preliminary hearing was held on Feb 22.

He stated that the detainee was killed between the night of Feb 22 and 23 by the local police and it was claimed that he along with another person was killed in encounter.

On court notice, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Imtiaz Altaf appeared along with several other police officials including that of the police stations Nasir Bagh, Mathra and Regi.

The CCPO said that the deceased was a proclaimed offender and had let loose a reign of terror in his area. He stated that he was charged in 21 criminal cases out of which 13 were registered at Nasir Bagh police station and the remaining at Regi police station.

Mr Altaf said that in one of the cases the deceased had killed a boy after sodomising him following which the mother of that boy had been suffering from mental ailment. The said woman, he said, had now been asking every policeman she came across whether they would take revenge of her son.

The CCPO said that several police officials were killed in different encounters and they never tried to stage a fake encounter.

The bench observed that they respected the sacrifices given by police, but at the same time the court was under constitutional obligation to look into matters if there were allegations that life of a person was taken without due course of law.

In the TOR the bench formulated several questions for the inquiry officer to be probed including whether the deceased was arrested by police of Mustafa Town Lahore and if so in which case; whether the deceased was handed over to the SHOs of Nasir Bagh and Regi police stations in connection with registered criminal cases; whether he was declared proclaimed offender by competent court and on which date; and, whether on fateful night any encounter took place between the local police and alleged robbers in which deceased was killed.

The bench directed that the inquiry officer should take into possession record of central control room of wireless operator and other relevant record to ascertain whether any emergency call for additional force was made and who had responded to the call.

The bench ordered that the inquiry officer should also interrogate and examine the SHOs of Nasir Bagh, Regi and Mathra police stations and other officials and constables, who had participated in the encounter and record their statements separately.

Furthermore, it was directed that the inquiry officer should take into possession attested copies of daily diaries of the said three police stations.