KOHAT, Feb 20: Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah has accused the Bannu police of putting the investigations of Punjab minister's kidnapping case on wrong track under duress just to hide the fact that victims and culprits were in the home district of the provincial chief executive.

Speaking about the case on the sidelines of a seminar on "human rights and policing", which he attended as chief guest here on Tuesday, the governor said that the superintendent of police, Bannu, had tried to mislead the government machinery by terming the information of an eyewitness totally baseless.

The assistant political agent of the FR Bannu, Adil Siddique, when contacted on Wednesday for comments, told Dawn by phone that the eyewitness, who is a resident of Bannu and a government employee posted in Mir Ali, had informed the investigation team on Jan 20 (11th day of the incident) that he had seen five people shifting four men from a blue car into an other vehicle in Mir Ali bazaar at 4pm and then driving towards the frontier region of the Bannu district.

An official sources said that contrary to that the police remained adamant that the minister was not near or in Bannu even after the report had been confirmed by informers and intelligence agencies.

At one stage the SP passed on an information to the home secretary, who was present in Bannu to monitor the investigation, that according to his reliable sources the Punjab minister for sports and culture, Naeemullah Shahani, was in custody of Nawab Kher Baksh Marri in Balochistan after which the scope of investigation was extended to the other province.

The information later proved out to be fake and resulted into a delay in the recovery of the Punjab minister, informed a highly placed source in the police department privy to the investigations.

He also said that the district police even after getting the information that the minister was in Bannu intentionally spread the rumour that he and his three companions had been shifted to Afghanistan or killed in North Waziristan Agency to cover up the facts.

The FR Bannu APA claimed that the minister and his three companions remained in the frontier region of Bannu district for six days, whereas for the rest of the 17 days of their 23-day captivity they were kept at a house, which fell in the Mirian police station's jurisdiction.

The official source said that a report submitted to the governor by one of the law enforcement agencies regarding the investigation says that after getting the information from the eyewitness the SP showed reluctance to move swiftly against the culprits.

The government at present was investigating the charge against the SP to know the reasons which stopped him from performing his duty freely, the source said.

It is said that the political wrangling between the governor and the NWFP chief minister was one of the prime reasons for a delay in the recovery of the Punjab minister, as the Federally- Administered Tribal Areas' administration falls under the governor's secretariat, whereas Bannu district was the domain of the MMA-led provincial government.

However, some officials were of the opinion that the police was afraid to launch operation against the kidnappers because the house where the minister was kept and his car was recovered in Bannu is at a distance of only 2.6 kilometres from the FR area which is regarded as a dangerous zone.

Meanwhile, a jirga held in the office of the APA on Tuesday, represented by the former senator, Malik Fareedullah, Malik Qadir and four other elders belonging to the accused Bakakhel tribe requested the government that as only one sub-clan out of the 12 clans of the Bakakhel tribe was involved in the kidnapping, therefore the others should be allowed to move freely and open their shops.

In response to their request, the tribal elders were told that under section 21 of the FCR the whole tribe was responsible for the crime committed on its soil and they should at least surrender the main culprit, Jalat Khan, who stands exposed, out of the five accused after which the government would consider to give them concessions.

Mr Siddique told this reporter by phone that the kidnappers passed through the land belonging to all the 12 sub-clans of the accused tribe before bringing the victims to Bannu from Mir Ali, therefore it was the collective responsibility of the Bakakhel tribe. After detailed discussions the jirga sought time till Friday to discuss the matter with all the elders of the sub-clans.