Four arrested in connection with check post attack

Shepherds had spotted the armed men in the area that day, says police.

GILGIT: Security forces have arrested four men suspected of sheltering militants who attacked a Rangers check post on the Karakorum Highway near the site of Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

Suspected militants opened fire on the post during the early hours of Sunday, leaving five Rangers personnel injured. Security forces launched a manhunt in the mountainous areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan district and Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district following the assault.

“Four people have so far been arrested for providing shelter to the militants. They are being interrogated,” said a police official on Thursday. Action was taken after receiving a tip-off from shepherds who graze their animals in the area.

The police official said more raids are being conducted. “The shepherds had spotted 15 armed men in the area that day,” he said, adding the militants had also broken into the huts of some of the shepherds and snatched edibles.

According to Diamer SP Rauf Qaisarani, the crackdown is under way and the cooperation of a jirga comprising 60 locals has been critical. “Search operations are being carried out in Harban, Bhasha and Shatiyal areas,” he told the media. Qaisarani said the terrain makes swift police action difficult but vowed to continue sweeps until the militants are arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2015.