Justice Dost Muhammad Khan took the suo motu notice on the report of the high court’s Human Rights Cell.The director of the cell produced a report revealing that 16 bodies were recovered in gunnysacks in the city within one month.

The chief justice summoned deputy attorney general Muhammad Iqbal Mohmand and additional advocate general Naveed Akhtar in the court and expressed deep concern over the inhuman killings of the citizens.

The bench issued notices to principal security officers to prime minister and chief minister, secretary to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, secretaries of interior, defence, Safron and Home and Tribal Affairs, chief secretary and additional chief secretary Fata.

The chief justice also directed the provincial police officer and capital city police officer to appear in person on September 12 in the court and explain the reasons behind these killings and identify those involved in it.

The chief justice observed that the provincial and federal governments had failed in fulfilling their constitutional obligation of protecting the citizens’ life and liberty.He said bodies of 16 citizens were recovered in the city, but the provincial government and police officers kept quiet over it.

The provincial cabinet did not even think about the killings of citizen in such an inhuman way, he added.“Under Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution, the provincial government is bound to protect its citizens,” the chief justice observed, adding that both the provincial and federal governments had to probe and stop the extra-judicial killings of citizens.

A division bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Roohul Amin Khan also issued show-cause notice to the abovementioned respondents after the court was informed that a missing person was killed and his relatives got his body from the mortuary of the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Lawyer Razaullah Khan informed the bench that body of the missing person Abdul Samad was recovered from the hospital. Abdul Samad, 42, was the son of senior high court lawyer Haji Mir Rehman and resident of Sufaid Dheri village in Peshawar.

The family members said that law-enforcing agency had taken him away from Saddar Bazaar about 10 months ago. On August 8, an unknown caller informed them to collect his body from the hospital.

0The family members said he was killed by the military personnel along with two other missing persons on August 7 in RA Bazaar near the Corps Headquarters after they filed habeas corpus petition in the high court for his safe release some two months ago. They termed the shootout a drama and said no security guard had died there.

On August 15, six bodies dumped in gunnysacks from three separate places were recovered and caused scare across the provincial capital. On August 12, the police also recovered bodies of two men tortured to death and put in gunnysacks in the city.