National Action Plan: Two picked up for ‘having ties to militant groups’

Raza’s family said they had no idea he could be involved with militant group

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Security agencies have taken two men in custody for having ties to proscribed militant outfits.

Officials requesting anonymity said security personnel raided Professor Liaquat’s house in Block N and took his 24-year-old son Muhammad Raza into custody. He is accused of having links with some proscribed outfits. They also confiscated his laptop, cell phones and other gadgets. Police officials said that Raza had gotten in touch with some members of a terrorist outfit while studying for his diploma in telecommunications in Bahawalpur.

Raza’s family said they were flabbergasted to learn that he could have been in touch with terrorists. Police said that intelligence agencies had interrogated his family.

One of Raza’s brothers is a student at Shaikh Zayed Medical College in Lahore. Another is studying at the Frontier Medical College in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Separately, a team of Counter Terrorism Department personnel took a man into custody for pasting stickers carrying hate material on the wall of a barber shop’s washroom in a Mehmood Kot police precinct.

Sajjad, a resident of Muzaffargarh, was picked up and taken to an unknown location for interrogation.

Security at schools

Dera Ghazi Khan DCO Nadeem ur Rehman Baig said on Thursday that 74 retired army snipers had been appointed to ensure fool proof security at educational institutes in the district.

According to directives from the provincial government, all educational institutes must follow SOPs issued to provide security. The DCO said that sniper guns were being acquired from Wah Arms Factory for this purpose.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2016.