PESHAWAR: Security forces arrested key local militant commander Umarzada alias Dildar from the Galiga area of Swat’s Matta tehsil.

In a statement, the office of Khyber Paktunkhawa Inspector General of Police said security forces also recovered 13 detonators and 15 cartridges from Dildar’s possession.

The militant commander’s father Bacha Gul was already in police custody.

In a separate incident in Peshawar’s Sarband area, security forces arrested 27 suspects and recovered arms and ammunition from their possession along with a vehicle with bogus paperwork.

Both areas are situated in northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has seen countless terrorist attacks over the past several years — many of them targeting security officials.

The Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the state, routinely target police and security forces and it is not clear whether with the ongoing developments in negotiations with the government, the militants would stop their attacks.