January 08, 2009	Thursday	Muharram 10, 1430

KOHAT, Jan 7: Security forces have been issued shoot at sight orders here for the suspected persons to avoid any untoward incident in the district during Ashura processions.

District Police Officer Abdullah Khan has also directed the security forces to confine Afghan refugees to their respective camps and feel free to take action if anybody tries to enter the city sealed from all sides.

Two helicopter gunships and a fighter aircraft have already started patrolling and filming the city while ground troops and security personnel in bullet proof vehicles have increased monitoring of the sensitive places.

Police have sealed the bus stands and elite force personnel have been deployed at the rooftops on the routes of the processions.

ROCKET ATTACKS: Two houses near a heavily guarded imambargah in the city were damaged in a rocket attack on Wednesday night.Police said the target of the rockets fired by militants from the western side of the city was Said Habib Imambargah. The inmates of the houses, who were in their bedrooms, remained unhurt. However, the boundary walls and roofs of the houses were damaged.

Police officials and ambulances reached the scene to collect evidence and start investigations.

The blasts caused panic among the people in the neighbourhood. It is after a long time that rockets have hit the city. Previously militants had always targeted the cantonment area.

Meanwhile, militants also attacked Kotal checkpost on the old Indus Highway with rockets on Wednesday afternoon.Officials said that one of the rockets hit the boundary wall of the checkpost at the border between Kohat district and Frontier Region on the hilly track.

The rockets were fired from Bosti Khel area of Darra Adamkhel. The Frontier Constabulary, manning the checkpost, also retaliated with heavy gunfire but no casualty was reported on either side.

The security forces then sent helicopter gunships which hovered over the area from where the rocket were fired but returned back as militants had allegedly taken shelter in the houses of the civilians.

Our Correspondent adds from Mansehra: Police have sealed all the entry and exit points of the district to avert any untoward situation during the Ashura procession, saying that the processions would be confined to its route at Muftiabad area.

Heavy contingents of police and Frontier constabulary have been deployed at all sensitive points in the city and near the imambargahs.

The provincial government had already declared Mansehra district as highly sensitive during Muharram. Entry of outsiders including Afghan refuges was banned and it would continue till end of the processions.