Bara administration releases professor

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) was told on Wednesday that a professor who had been picked up along with his brother about three months ago had been released. During hearing of missing persons’ cases, Muhammad Iqbal Mohmand, counsel for the professor, informed the division bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Mrs Justice Irshad Qaisar that Prof Qazi Muhammad Ayaz of the Government College Peshawar had been released by the assistant political agent, Bara. However, he stated that the professor’s brother Muhammad Riaz was still in the custody of APA. The court re-issued notice to the APA to submit reply and fixed the case for hearing today. Nisar Khan, a relative, had filed the petition against the arrest and detention of the two brothers by the political authorities. The petitioner’s lawyer Iqbal Mohmand said the personnel of spy agencies had first picked up Qazi Muhammad Ayaz and also a lawyer and his brother Muhammad Riaz from Tableeghi Markaz in Peshawar on February 24, 2015. He revealed that after one month, one Mohabat Khan, claiming to be an employees of a spy agency, demanded Rs1.5 million for the release of the missing brothers. He said the relatives then refused to pay such a huge amount and lodged FIR against the personnel of the agency in Michini Gate Police Station, Peshawar. He said that now they had been handed over to the APA and were illegally detained there for the last two months.