29 January 2004	Thursday	06 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 28: Armed tribesmen of Wazir Dand area of Khyber Agency on Wednesday blocked the main road in Jamrud for an hour to protest against the arrest of 58 persons by political administration and Khyber Rifles.

Sources said that the tribesmen came from Wazir Dand area to main Jamrud bazaar and blocked Jamrud road as a mark of protest against the joint operation of the khasadar force of political administration and Khyber Rifles in their area on Tuesday.

They chanted slogans against the tribal administration and later exchanged fire with the personnel of Khyber Riffle when they tried to clear the road for traffic. However, no body was hurt during the exchange of fire, sources said. The tribesmen after the firing dispersed, they added.

ARMS RECOVERED: Earlier, briefing the newsmen about the five-hour anti-criminal operation, Col Riaz, commandant of Khyber Rifles, and Riaz Mehsud, assistant political administration of Jamrud, said that this was the first big operation in tribal area, which was notorious in narcotics and fake currency making.

During the joint operation started at 12pm, they netted 58 outlaws and recovered a large quantity of narcotics, liquor and fake currency from their possession.

The seizure include 1,575 bottles of foreign and local brand liquor, 475kg of hashish, 9kg of heroin, 2.5kg of opium, 300 kg of indigenous liquor, counterfeit local currency Rs574,850 of various denomination and a large number of fake afghani, US dollars and UAE dirhams.

The law enforcers also seized 48 TV sets, 15 VCRs and VCDs, 27 tape-recorders, generators, still cameras, which the two officials claimed, were used for pornographic movies.