Minding the militants: Police, security forces nab 30 suspects from city’s outskirts

Those arrested were handed over to army and shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

PESHAWAR:

At least 30 people were arrested in a search and strike operation in several villages which fall in the jurisdiction of Badhaber police station close to the border of Akka Khel, Khyber Agency on Saturday.

A contingent of Pakistan Army troops, backed by local police, surrounded Masho Khel, Suleman Khel, Sheikhan and Mushterzai villages early morning and asked residents to stay indoors. The officials then conducted a door-to-door search operation and arrested at least 30 people from the four villages and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

“Police had been put on alert from a day earlier and had moved to the area in the night while security forces joined them in the morning,” said an official of the local police station while talking to The Express Tribune.

The official said the operation began from Suleman Khel village, followed by Sheikhan, Masho Khel and Mushtarzai.

“It ended around noon and those arrested were handed over to security forces which then shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation,” he explained, adding all those who are cleared as innocent will be released.

“In the past one year, the area has been turned into a safe haven for the local militants as well as those who cross from the adjacent Khyber Agency,” he said, adding they had information that militants roam the area after dark and the operation focused on nabbing supporters of militants who facilitate them in the settled district.

Locals told The Express Tribune no one was allowed to come out of their houses in the morning as security forces had cordoned off the entire locality and because of it most residents were unable to go to work in the morning.

They, however, claimed that repeated clean-up operations and constant patrolling was required to make the area safe again as militants freely roam about at night owing to the porous border with Khyber Agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2014.