17 more offenders held amid operation in Swat, Malakand

MINGORA: During the ongoing operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat and Malakand Division, as many as 17 more offenders have been held in last 24 hours, Inter Services Public Relations said on Tuesday.

According to ISPR, Security forces succeeded to arrest four militants from Kalam and Behrin areas in the middle of search operation. Meanwhile, underground tunnels as long as 30 to 60 feet have also been discovered in Peuchar Valley.

The residential hideouts of militants were pounded during search and besiege operations in Bahadur Gam village while 8 miscreants were taken under captivity in the process, sources claimed.

Two were held in Syedo Sharif operation while three houses-type sanctuaries of miscreants were shelled during search operation in Dahira and Nagwa areas, sources added.

As per ISPR, over 440,400 cash cards have been dealt out amongst internally displaced persons (IDPs).

17 terrorists nabbed in last 24 hours: ISPR

RAWALPINDI: A number of terrorists have voluntarily surrendered to security forces during last week and the trend of terrorists’ surrendering voluntarily is picking up. 

Meanwhile, the security forces continued search and clearance operations in Swat and Malakand with the support of local Lashkars. 

According to a press release issued by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces conducted search and clearance operation at Kalam and Bahrain areas of Swat and apprehended at least four suspects.

During search operation in Piochar Valley, two tunnels of 60 feet and 30 feet long were discovered in Rampatai.

Security forces carried out cordon and search operations in village Bahadar Gaam, near Charbagh and found under ground tunnel which was destroyed and 8 suspects were also apprehended. 

During search and clearance operation security forces apprehended 2 suspects from Jambil near Saidu Sharif.

Security forces carried out search operation in Dahrah and Nagwa. Three houses of terrorists were demolished and 10 x rifles, 4 Small Machine Guns (SMGs), 2 pistols, 2 Grenades, a Mine Detector and ammunition of various calibers were recovered.

Security forces carried out search operation in Dagai, Garoh and Kotali, Tutan Banda and apprehended 3 terrorists and recovered 5 rifles, a pistol, an IED prepared in Pressure Cooker and ammunition of various calibers.

Security forces carried out search and clearance on road Ambela – Nawagai in Buner and demolished houses of 4 terrorist’s commanders in village Koga near Ambela.

The security forces continued relief activities, as so far 240,400 cash cards have been distributed amongst the IDPs of Malakand.

Sedition case lodged against Sufi, nine others 

MINGORA: A sedition case was registered against the banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and his nine colleagues at the Saidu Sharif police station in Swat Valley on Sunday.

Sufi Muhammad, who was arrested by the NWFP government on July 27 from Peshawar along with his two young sons Rizwanullah and Ziaullah and another relative, was charged with sedition for issuing statements against the state of Pakistan and its institutions, including parliament and judiciary, during a public gathering at the Grassy Ground in Mingora on April 19.

Others named in the First Information Report (FIR) were two deceased leaders of the TNSM, Maulana Muhammad Alam and Amir Izzat Khan. They had been arrested by security forces from their organisationís office in Amandarra in the Malakand Agency and were killed in mysterious circumstances near Dargai while being shifted by soldiers to Peshawar.

Other TNSM activists named in the FIR include Maulana Abdul Haq, Shah Zeb, Maulana Safiullah, Maulana Bakht, Fayyaz Shah, Salar and Samiullah. It is not known if any of them is in the government custody.

District Police Officer (DPO), Swat, Sajid Khan Mohmand, confirmed the registration of the FIR and said that Sufi Muhammad was charged with sedition for instigating the general public against the state and its institutions during public gatherings after signing a peace agreement with the government.

Meanwhile, police arrested four suspects while security forces demolished eight houses of suspected militants in different areas of Swat on Sunday. Sources told The News that the police conducted search operation in Islampur village near Mingora city and arrested four suspects. Later, the arrested persons were shifted to a secret location for interrogation.

Meanwhile, security forces dynamited eight houses of militants during a search operation in Allabad, Balogram and Ahingaro Dherai. Two houses were demolished in Allabad while six were destroyed in Balogram and Ahingaro Dherai. No arrest was made during the operation.

The bodies of Gul Khitab, the brother of slain militant commander Khan Khitab, and a militant Ajab Khan were recovered from different areas of Matta Tehsil. Unidentified persons had killed Gul Khitab and dumped his body near the office of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Saidu Sharif while the body of Ajab Khan was found in Koray area of Matta Tehsil.

Meanwhile, the ban on rickshaw riding was lifted on Sunday in Mingora city. Talking to The News, DPO Sajid Khan Mohmand said that 15 three-wheelers were given stickers after registration to ply on the city roads. He said the registration of more auto rickshaws was going on to facilitate the local dwellers.

APP adds from Peshawar: A media update of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said four more militants were killed and several others apprehended during the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast.

The troops, during a search and cordon operation in Derai and Danda area of the Swat Valley, killed two militants and apprehended seven others. Two more terrorists were killed and two others apprehended during a search operation in Gorai, Kotlai and Dargai areas.

According to the ISPR, security forces found two tunnels of 75 meters and 60 feet length and one training camp with bunkers and an electric generator in Biha Valley. During a search and clearance operation in Kamargai near Gulibagh, the forces apprehended 10 suspects, including a local commander, it said, adding a local terrorist, Khairur Rehman, voluntarily surrendered to the troops in Shangla and also handed over his weapons.

A search operation was also carried out in Shah Dheri area where eight militants were arrested and four rifles and three pistols were recovered from their possession. A cave was discovered in Amlukdara area by security forces, while three improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 80 kilogram explosives and 220-meter-long detonating cord were also discovered.

Regarding the relief activities, the ISPR said so far 239,689 cash cards had been distributed amongst the IDPs of the Malakand Division. As many as 12 truckloads of ration, non-food items and medicines were despatched for the people of Mingora, it added.

Two cops shot dead in Peshawar 

PESHAWAR: Militants gunned down two policemen in Paharipura while a police party escaped a booby trap when a bomb disposal squad defused explosives placed with the body of a slain prayer leader in Mashogagar in the early hours of Sunday.

A squad of the Paharipura police station was ambushed by unknown gunmen in Islamabad town around 2:30 am while patrolling the urban streets. Both the members of the squad, Hidayatullah from Harichand village in Charsadda, and Imtiaz, resident of Afghan Colony, Peshawar, were killed in the attack.

Their funeral prayers were offered at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines. Hidayatullah is survived by two sons, three daughters and a widow, while Imtiaz was a bachelor. In the southern Mashogagar village, terrorists killed a prayer leader Qari Roohul Amin of Sulemankhel, who had been kidnapped on June 29, and placed three kilograms of explosives with his body to trigger it with a remote control device in the hope that policemen would come close to it.

Police officers, however, directed the cops not to go close to the body as it could be used as a booby trap. Their assessment proved true. The officials of the bomb disposal squad then rushed to the area and defused the explosives. A similar trap had killed seven policemen of the Badaber police station in the same village a couple of months back.

Army denies talks with Mehsud 

PESHAWAR: With sections of the foreign media reporting that the government was again holding peace talks with Baitullah Mehsud, a high-ranking military official refuted the reports by categorically stating that the time to seek a truce with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head was past.

Reports have recently appeared in the British and US media about renewed contacts between the government emissaries and Baitullah. The reports claimed that Baitullah had agreed to halt suicide bombings in return for a government promise not to launch a big military operation against him in his native South Waziristan. It was suggested in these reports that Afghan Taliban were mediating between him and the government.

The Army officer, who wished not be named, told The News such reports were being spread by pro-militant sources to create confusion in the country and abroad. He felt Baitullah and his supporters might be wishing that the government and the military approach him again for peace talks.

“This cannot happen now. Both the civil and military authorities have concluded that Baitullah is an enemy of Pakistan and must be dealt with accordingly,” he stressed. He argued the armed forces had disrupted the militants’ network run by Baitullah and his allied groups by arresting key figures, seizing weapons and taking control of some of their training centres and safe houses. He said the terrorists’ ability to carry out suicide bombings in urban areas had diminished. He thought Baitullah and his commanders did not have an endless supply of suicide bombers. “Besides trying to bottle up Baitullah’s men and area in South Waziristan from three sides to prevent his supplies, the Army also carried out action against his allied groups in different places, including Shah Hasankhel village, in Lakki Marwat district. Better security in cities and on roads had also affected the mobility of Baitullah’s men,” the military official said.

He pointed out people like Baitullah wanted to control the territory and enhance their power. He said it was futile to talk to someone whose demands keep growing and who is irreconcilable. “Let me assure you that there have been no talks recently with Baitullah. It is now out of question,” he maintained. He added the Army would carry out a major offensive against Baitullah at the time of its choice.

A senior bureaucrat looking after Fata also said no peace talks were taking place with Baitullah. He said he checked with the military authorities after hearing reports that the two sides could be holding talks again. “But I was assured that it was a closed chapter as there was no need for holding peace talks with Baitullah,” he added.

Maulana Saleh Shah, a senator from South Waziristan belonging to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F, said he was unaware of any peace talks with Baitullah. “Every day 20 to 25 people, mostly tribesmen from South Waziristan, ask me if these reports were true. Our people have left their homes fearing fighting in the area and they are keen to find out if peace talks with Baitullah were taking place,” he told The News. Senator Saleh Shah has been part of a tribal Jirga in the past that mediated between the government and Baitullah.

However, another Maulana from South Waziristan said on condition of anonymity that he was aware that contact was made with Baitullah by certain mediators but no peace deal could be struck.

The fact that a number of displaced Mehsud tribal families had recently gone back to their villages in South Waziristan also contributed to speculations that the expected ground offensive by the military in the Baitullah-controlled areas had been put off due to peace talks between the two sides. But Mehsud tribal elders argued that those families decided to return to South Waziristan after facing harassment at the hands of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.

“Some of them said they were willing to die in bombing by fighters in South Waziristan than getting kidnapped and harassed in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan,” a Mehsud elder recalled. Though the Army hasn’t launched a ground offensive in South Waziristan yet, bombing by air force jets and shelling by artillery guns against Baitullah’s hideouts is continuing. Reports from the area said jets again carried out bombing of some places in the Mehsud tribal territory in South Waziristan on Saturday.

Two injured, 15 shops damaged in Balakot blast 

MANSEHRA: Two brothers were injured and about 15 shops damaged when an explosive device ripped through a market in Balakot town early Sunday.

A device planted outside a compact disc (CD) shop at the Paradise Market went off, injuring Mohammad Faisal and Mohammad Taufique, who were present in their barber shop. The injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Balakot. 

The explosion was heard throughout the town and people immediately reached the spot. Police also rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. District Police Officer Akhtar Hayat Khan told reporters at the scene that it was an 8 kilogram remote-controlled device.

Seminary blown up in Lakki Marwat 

LAKKI MARWAT: Security forces and the police in a joint search operation blew up a Madrassa on the Begukhel Road in Machenkhel on Sunday.

Official sources said security forces and police raided Siddiqia Madrassa at 5:30 am and blew it up, destroying five rooms of the building. Head of the Madrassa, Maulana Gul Muhammad, was not present at the time. There was no casualty as the seminary was empty.

Official sources said there were authentic reports that the seminary was being used as a shelter by the local and non-local militants. Meanwhile, unidentified militants fired at a police checkpost near Shah Hassankhel village on Saturday night.

Mingora police arrest 8 suspects 

MINGORA: Police arrested four suspects while security forces demolished eight houses of suspected militants in different areas in Swat on Sunday.

Sources told The News that the police conducted search operation in Islampur village near Mingora city and arrested four suspected persons. Later, the arrested persons were shifted to a secret location for interrogation.

Meanwhile, the security forces dynamited eight houses of suspected militants during a search operation in Allabad, Balogram and Ahingaro Dherai. Two houses were demolished in Allabad while six were destroyed in Balogram and Ahingaro Dherai.

No arrest was made during the operation. The bodies of Gul Khitab, brother of slain militant commander Khan Khitab, and a militant Ajab Khan were recovered from different areas in Matta tehsil.

Unidentified persons had killed Gul Khitab and dumped his body near the office of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Saidu Sharif while the body of Ajab Khan was found in Koray area in Matta tehsil.

Meanwhile, the ban on rickshaw riding was lifted on Sunday in Mingora city. Talking to The News, DPO Sajid Khan Mohmand said that 15 three-wheelers were given stickers after registration to ply the city roads. He said the registration of more auto rickshaws was going on to facilitate the local dwellers.

Elders term FCR root cause of Fata problems 

LANDIKOTAL: Local elders and representatives of various political parties Sunday said the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) was the root cause of all problems in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Addressing ‘Meet the Press’ programme here, they demanded of the government to extend Political Parties Act to tribal areas.PPP Landikotal President Atta Muhammad Shinwari said it was need of the hour that the FCR is amended to redress the grievances of tribal people. He demanded the formation of Fata Council on priority basis. 

Muqtadar Shah Afridi said the administration was exploiting tribesmen in the shape of collective responsibility section of the FCR. He demanded immediate amendments to FCR. Hajat Khan Shinwari of the PML-Q said kidnappings had become the order of the day in Landikotal. ANP’s also spoke on the occasion.