Cleaning up: Security forces nab 16 suspected militants

Search operation conducted in early hours of Friday in Hassan Khel area of FR Peshawar.

PESHAWAR:

Security forces nabbed 16 suspected militants during a search operation in Bazargai, Koi Kalay and Kas Darra areas of Hassan Khel in Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar on Friday.

The operation was launched on Thursday night when a large contingent of army troops entered the area and took positions on the surrounding hilltops. In the morning, security forces began a door-to-door search operation and arrested 16 people and shifted them to a secret location for investigation.

The operation, conducted in Koi Kalay, Bazargai, Kas Darra and surrounding hills in the area inhabited by the Hassan Khel tribe, culminated at around 3pm on Friday.



Talking to The Express Tribune, a local elder said the entire area was surrounded by troops so as to block all possible escape routes, after which a search operation was launched and suspects arrested.

“Locals were asked to stay inside their homes and those arrested were shifted to an undisclosed location,” he said, adding at least two hardcore militants were among those arrested.

“For the first time, an operation has been conducted in these hills where militants have had bases for a long time,” said the elder, adding the entire area was virtually under militants’ control for the past few months.

Security forces have since long identified the adjacent areas of Peshawar as favourable to militants owing to their border with the tribal areas. The army has already established a base in Kandao Asho Khel area of FR Peshawar which was infested with militants who had been called in by locals to help settle personal feuds.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.