Pre-dawn raid: Commandos swoop on Peshawar house

Five ‘terrorists’ held, suicide jackets, explosives found.

PESHAWAR:

Five suspected terrorists were arrested in a pre-dawn raid by an intelligence agency personnel at a house in Tehkal area of Peshawar, officials said on Friday.

An intelligence agency official told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity that the team besieged the entire locality before raiding the house of Qari Muhammad Anwar. The telephone and electricity lines of the house were also cut off before the raid, which resulted in the arrest of Qari Anwar, Abdul Hameed and Masoom Agha.

He said several suicide jackets and explosive devices were recovered from the house and all the culprits were shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

He added that those arrested were Afghan refugees and had ties with militants.

Police claimed that they had no information about the raid but residents told The Express Tribune that a team of commandos raided the house near Grand Hotel. They said five people were arrested, blindfolded, bundled into a vehicle and shifted to an undisclosed location.

They mentioned that Qari Anwar was residing in the area for a long time and was reputed to be a good man among the locals. However, no one knew about his profession but residents said he was an Afghan refugee and religiously-inclined.

Raids intensify

Intelligence agencies have intensified their raids in Peshawar, in view of the surge in terrorist attacks in the city and its outskirts.

A day earlier, two brothers named Saleem and Raheem were arrested from a hotel on Ring Road in the jurisdiction of the Paharipura police station. Similarly, two people, one each from Peshawar and Hayatabad were arrested a week ago. “We had arrested a few culprits based on clues, and it was with the help of the information culled from them that we are now raiding the hideouts of terrorists in the city. The entire gang has been busted successfully,” the official said.

He added that these people were behind the recent wave of attacks on police stations, policemen and personnel of various law enforcement agencies.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.