Terrorism bid foiled: Big cache of weapons, explosives seized

House of an alleged suicide attack mastermind raided.

GHALLANAI:

Security officials arrested a terrorism suspect and recovered a sizable amount of arms and ammunition during a raid in Mohmand Agency on Sunday.

During a press conference, Commandant Mohmand Rifles, Colonel Mushtaq Ahmad said a joint operation was conducted by Levies, Khasadars and Mohmand Rifles in Shani Khel, Halimzai Tehsil of the upper sub-division of the agency.

The raid was conducted at the house of Ijaz the alleged mastermind of suicide attack in Ekkaghund on January 31. Security officials then arrested Dr Ibrahim, on the information provided by Ijaz on February 3.

During the raid, officials also arrested Sameer, another relative of Ijaz. Colonel Ahmed revealed that the house was being used as a terrorist hideout, where a  huge cache of arms, ammunitions and explosives were recovered from the basement and the courtyard.

A suicide attacks was being planned here, he said, adding that following a rigourous search, the raiding team recovered weapons, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide jackets, RPG-7 shells, mortar shell, missiles, anti-tank mines and various weapons. The raiding team also recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunitions from nearby farms owned by Ijaz.

The raid was conducted in the presence of Halimzai peace committee members, who discussed the demolition of the suicide bomber’s house in upper Mohmand. The suicide bomber remained unnamed in the press conference.

The house was demolished and set ablaze.



Meanwhile, 14 elders of Hamza Khel were apprehended under territorial responsibility.

Dr Ambar Ali Khan, a political agent, said that since the Brekhana Operation, around 107,000 displaced families were resettled into the agency.

He further said that a grand jirga of elders will be convened for devising a code of conduct for taking security measures across the agency, next month. “The foiling of this major terrorist bid will help boost morale of people on the administration and law-enforcement agencies,” he added.

Khan said that work on Ghallanai-Muhammad Ghat Road will commence next month at an estimated cost of over Rs3 billion by Frontier Works Organisation, saying uplift schemes of Rs1 billion in other sector including health, education and youth welfare will also be launched.

Regarding the economic aspects, Khan said that 102 out of 900 mines were being made operational with the help of Pakistan Stone Development Company (PHASDEC) for providing more job opportunities.

Moreover, the head of the peace committee, Muhammad Ali Halimzai expressed satisfaction over the performance of security forces and political administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2013.