PESHAWAR, Aug 19: The city police and Frontier Constabulary personnel arrested 20 hardened criminals after a shootout and seized a large quantity of arms during a four-hour operation in Qilla Shah Baig village near Mohmand Agency on Thursday, a senior official said.

All the arrested persons were wanted by police in cases of murder, kidnapping for ransom and robbery registered with Charsadda and Peshawar districts police stations, said SSP operation Abid Ali at a press conference here at the police headquarters.

He said Qilla Shah Baig village had become a 'no-go' area for police as it remained part of Mohmand Agency till 1999. The residents were unwilling to annex the 25 villages near Mohmand Agency in settled areas of Peshawar and Charsadda districts, the SSP added.

Three platoons of police with the help of four armoured personnel carriers had gone to the village at around 5am. One platoon of the Frontier Constabulary was stationed at a local police station as a back-up force, Mr Abid Ali said.

Seeing the police, a group of criminals led by Mohibullah started indiscriminate fire on them. The police returned fire and arrested 20 criminals in the four-hour operation, he said and added that nobody hurt from both sides in the cross-fire.

The arrested accused were identified as Mohibullah, Adnan, Ashfaq, Mohammad Nabi, Shah Sawar, Sulman, Irfan, Saraf, Ilyas, Haleem, Javed, Mansher, Arif, Siddique, Mukhtar, Gulab, Irshad, Siana Khan, Nobat Khan and Gul Said Bacha.

The weapons seized from their possession included: 21 hand-grenades, two rocket launchers, 15 rockets, five land mines, 10 Kalashnikovs, one Doshaka, five riffles and five pistols.

The police had also destroyed a liquor factory established in the house of Mohibullah, the SSP said. He said that still there were criminals in villages near Mohmand Agency and the police would conduct another operation to cleanse the area of the anti-social elements.

Among the 20 accused, three are under 18 and one is a school student. "I am a class 8th student of the Government High School, Shalobar No-2, Bara in Khyber Agency," 16-year-old Saddique told Dawn. The boy said he had come to the house of his uncle in the village when police nabbed him.

Fifteen-year-old Shah Sawar said he worked in a marble factory in Suri Kalay and was arrested when he was on his way to the workplace. Seventeen-year-old cook Ilyas said he, his father and four others were going to a function to prepare food in a nearby village when they were arrested.

Another accused Gul Said Bacha said he had been working with the agriculture department for 13/14 years and was going to his office situated at Warsak left canal bank when held by the law enforcers.

But SP rural Mohammad Ayub said that all these were criminals and wanted by police in murder cases. These young boys were working in the liquor factory of Mohibullah, he claimed.