August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 19: The city police have started search for some suspected suicide bombers among the people shifting from parts of the Bajaur Agency to Peshawar and other areas of the province.

An official said the search was launched after some information provided by officials of the Frontier Corps that about five would-be suicide bombers were on their way from Bajaur to Peshawar in the guise of displaced people.The suspected bombers, the source said, were hailing from Nawagai, Khar and other areas, who were equipped with explosives.

The source said officials of the special branch and other secret agencies had been directed to keep vigil on movement of the people and take suspected persons into custody.

Efforts were made to get the version of Capital City Police Officer Dr Suleman and SSP (operations) Kashif Alam, but they could not be contacted on phone.

Meanwhile, militants blew up the main telephone exchange in the Mattani area in the suburbs of the provincial capital early Tuesday morning.

Security agencies have given a deadline of Aug 21 to people assisting militants to withdraw their support or face action, according to a reliable official source.

The source said setting the deadline was a compulsion because militants had made miserable the lives of security personnel, especially in the Mattani police area where they faced attacks almost every night.

Police, he said, had dug up trenches around the police station and erected walls and placed sandbags in order to protect themselves from the continuing attacks.

He said the building of the telephone exchange had been completely destroyed as if militants had planted explosives beneath the building’s foundations. The source said it was the second phone exchange in the area that was blown up. A few weeks ago, he said, a telephone exchange in the Pasanai area was destroyed.

When contacted, the deputy superintendent of police concerned, Abdur Rasheed, said most of militants were coming from the Darra Adamkhel side.

He confirmed that the people of the area had been warned to stop support to militants, otherwise they would face action. He said the warning had so far been successful and many people had reportedly stopped accompanying militants.

A local nazim, Asad Khan, said that due to destruction of the exchange, the entire communication system of five union councils with the rest of the country had been cut off.

He said hundreds of families from different localities had left for safe areas and some people used to shift to other areas at night and come back to their homes in the morning. “If we support the government openly the Taliban will slaughter us and if we assist the Taliban the government will arrest us,” he said.

He said local people were facing hardships because they could not take their patients to hospitals at night. The people could not come out of their homes after evening, he said.

It may be mentioned here that militants, after police stations and checkposts, have started targeting power pylons and telephone exchanges on the outskirts of the city.

A 500KV pylon near the Shaikh Mohammadi grid station had been blown up for the second time on Aug 8. It had first been destroyed on May 12.

Also, on Sunday night, two music centres had been blown up in Tauheedabad in the old city area of Peshawar. Police said the explosion had occurred at midnight, but no loss of life had been reported. However, the entire electronic gadgets and other items had been destroyed.