Ongoing operation: 50 arrested in Pishtakhara, Badhaber sweeps

Raids prompted by discovery of roadside bomb.

PESHAWAR:

About 50 men were arrested and arms and ammunition were seized during two separate search and strike operations in the jurisdiction of Pishtakhara and Badhaber police stations Sunday.

Around 30 men were arrested in a search operation in several villages under the Pishtakhara police. The raid was led by DSP Pishtakhara and Hayatabad and they were joined by female police officers and the bomb disposal unit. One AK-47, one repeater gun, one rifle, four pistols and 53 cartridges were taken from the suspects.



Police also checked motorcycles and one was taken into custody after its number plate emerged as fake.

Similarly, a search operation was conducted in Masho Pekay village in the jurisdiction of Badhaber police station. Police said that around 20 people were arrested on suspicion and were takenfor questioning. “The operation was conducted after a six kilogram explosive device was found planted by a roadside and had to be defused in the area a day earlier,” said an official of the local police station.

Doctor kidnapped

Militants have kidnapped a practitioner popularly known as Dr Anwar Khan from Sheikhan village.

Residents told The Express Tribune that armed men came to his clinic in the afternoon and took him away at gunpoint in a car without inviting any attention from the police posts whose staff did not come to his assistance.

“This is the second man kidnapped in broad daylight this Ramazan,” a resident said, backed up by others who were angered by the brazen way in which the militants operated.

“These militants openly patrol the streets and roads in the village and the police keep a safe distance from them. They [the police] are more interested in intercepting cattle smugglers who then pay handsome amounts to go free or in stopping vehicles carrying drugs or small arms manufactured in Bara which is a source of income for them.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2014.