KOHAT, July 10: The law enforcement agencies in an operation in Darra Adam Khel bulldozed two houses and hunted down 20 criminals on Wednesday.

The office of the assistant political agent confirmed the arrests and said 200 Khyber Rifles man supported by Khasadars and armoured personnel carriers were carrying out search operations for the arrest of criminals wanted by the police for murders, dacoities, carjacking and kidnappings.

The assistant political agent was supervising the operation in Darra Adam Khel.

An official source said: “The operation would be long and targeted and it would continue till the arrest of more than 600 proclaimed offenders hiding in Darra.

The territory is connected through difficult terrain with Khyber and Orakzai agencies making it difficult for us to arrest all the POs but we are going to try our best to clean the area once and for all. We will restart the operation after a 12-hour break to gather more information about the hideouts of the criminals and persuade the leaders to accompany us.”

Earlier, the assistant political agent held meetings with elders of the area and demanded custody of the wanted people sheltering in Darra.

But the elders failed to hand over the criminals, particularly the group which had forcefully stopped work on the Kohat tunnel and blown up the high tension wires of the Water and Power Development Authority’s main power supply line passing through the mountainous tribal territory.

The arrested fugitives are: Ghani Khan Afridi, Tikka Khan, Qayyum Afridi, Gul Rehman, Lal Said, Mumtaz, Khan Khel, Herat Khan, Alam Khan, Zahidullah, Haji Jalad Khan Afridi, Jan Khan Afridi, Azmat Khan, Habibur Rehman, Daud Khan, Rehmanud Din, Syed Nawab, Fazal Subhan, Mohammad Imran and Sahib Zaman.

The houses of Hameed Khan and Chinar Gul were demolished when they refused to surrender to the authorities.