410 suspects held in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: City police claimed to have arrested at least 410 suspects during raids on Sunday night.

A police spokesperson told The Express Tribune on Monday that the arrests were made during overnight raids on the outskirts of the city.

He said the raids were conducted in the limits of Faqirabad, Mathra, Khazana and Pharipura police stations. According to him 410 suspects were detained and arms and ammunition recovered from their possession.

The police said that they had recovered at least 16 rifles, 10 Kalashnikovs, four Kalakovs, 13 pistols and around 800 rounds of ammunition from the suspects.

Peshawar police have detained more than 700 suspects during raids conducted over the past three days in the course of a crackdown against militants.

On Sunday the police had claimed to have arrested 220 people from various urban and rural areas in and around Peshawar, while 37 suspects and 10 alleged offenders were detained on Saturday.

The police began conducting raids following a devastating twin suicide attack that destroyed government buildings and shops in Yaka Ghund area of Mohmand Agency on Friday. Following the attack, concern in Peshawar grew about the increase in militant activities on the outskirts of the city.

Meanwhile, police in the southern district of Kohat said a young boy was killed in his attempt to plant an explosive device outside the community centre of a tribal elder belonging to Orakzai Agency. Police said the bomb went off in front of Malik Sawab Gul’s community centre at around 1:30 pm in Khawas Banda area.

Local officials told The Express Tribune that the boy killed in the premature blast was named Fazal Amin and was a resident of a nearby village. They said police had recovered a pistol and an identity card from the body.

Malik Sawab Khan is a prominent tribal elder from Orakzai Agency, an official told The Express Tribune. Khan is said to have been particularly generous in his donations to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Orakzai Agency. Thousands of IDPs live in camps across Kohat and Hangu districts and officials said that Khan had angered militants by helping the displaced families.

Khan had also been attacked by armed men a few months ago, but had managed to escape unhurt.

In a separate incident, suspected militants fired a rocket on an office in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, but no casualties were reported.

Officials told The Express Tribune the attack occurred at around 11:00 am.

Locals said that Bara bazaar has been closed for several months due to the ongoing military operation in the area and a curfew has been imposed on the bazaar. However, they said security forces have allowed people to open a makeshift market in the Qambar Abad locality in Shalobar area of the tehsil to cater to their everyday needs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.