PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have arrested 28 proclaimed offenders, eight militants and 97 suspects besides recovering arms and ammunition during last two days in a fresh search operation across the province.

According to a handout, the operation was launched in the wake of prevailing law and order situation.

The raiding teams comprised of sniffer dogs, bomb disposal teams and vehicle verification officials, and reinforced by army and Frontier Corps personnel.

It said that the recoveries made during past two days included 20 Kalashnikovs, 45 rifles, 75 pistols, 1000 rounds and a heavy explosive cache.

It stated that the operation had been planned and initiated with focus on illegal Afghan immigrants, IDPs, proclaimed offenders, illegal arms and explosives.

Records of individuals previously charge-sheeted and apprehended for terrorist activities, individuals with bad reputation, rental properties, hotels and un-registered vehicles are also being re-verified.

Meanwhile, as a pilot project the sub-divisional police officers of Peshawar police are being entrusted with the charge of supervising the investigation staff, in addition to their existing responsibilities, in order to improve the investigation process.

The decision was taken at a meeting at Central Police Office, Peshawar, on Tuesday. Chaired by the IGP Nasir Khan Durrani the meeting was attended by additional IGP operation, additional IGP investigation and other high-ranking police officers.

Prior to this the SDPOs had no role in investigation process since each sub-division has its own DSP (investigation).

After the decision, the SDPOs of Peshawar shall be responsible to SSP (operations) for operational matters and to SSP (investigation) for investigation affairs under the overall supervision of the capital city police officer.

Moreover, orders have been issued to all the SDPOs to ensure that preliminary investigation, soon after an occurrence of a crime and before registration of an FIR, be carried out jointly by the operational and investigation staff.