RAWALPINDI, Jan 21: A bailiff appointed by District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) Attaullah Kosar here on Wednesday recovered a man and a woman, who were illegally detained by the Airport police in a post at Gulraiz Scheme-II.

Bailiff Malik Lal Khan raided the police post after Mohammad Amin moved a habeas corpus petition, stating that his relatives – Mukhtar Bibi and Ali Sher – both sweepers by professions, were being detained in the police post for the last two days, but no case was registered against them.

The bailiff found the woman sitting in the police post and Ali Sher hand cuffed and tied to a charpoy. Neither a criminal case was registered against them and nor there was a complaint pending against them in the daily diary.

Mr Khan recovered the two persons and directed the in charge of the police post to appear before the court on January 26 along with record of the case, if any.

The freed persons told the bailiff that they were picked up by the police and were tortured to confess that they committed a theft in the house of an influential person of the locality. They alleged that the police had asked them to “either confess or produce the thieves”.

Meanwhile, Anti Terrorism Court No. 1 Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman put off till February 6 the hearing in the case of a suicide attack on Marriot Hotel in Islamabad after the lawyer of the four accused sought time and some incriminating documents.

The court was to formally indict the accused – Dr Mohammad Usman and Tehseenullah Jan, both residents of Peshawar; Hameed Afzal of Toba Tek Singh and Rana Ilyas of Faisalabad – on Wednesday, but the proceedings were adjourned on the request of the defence counsel.