KOHAT: Police arrested 57 suspects including four Afghans and two wanted suspects from Kohat and surrounding areas, on Sunday. The arrests come as part of an ongoing effort to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) and crack down on suspicious activities in the province.

Twenty-three more were arrested for violation of Section 144 ─ an act dealing with unlawful assembly, provocative speech, assembly of more than five people at a time, and the illegal use of loudspeakers. Police also recovered arms from the suspects.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the country needed to rid itself of the menace of terrorism once and for all, and that failure was not an option in the fight against militancy.

Read more: NAP objectives have to be met: PM

On March 5, 2015 the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated “The participants [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee meeting] reaffirmed their resolve to fight the menace of terrorism as per the National Action Plan with full support of the people of Pakistan.”

Within the past week alone, a Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander and militants were arrested by security forces in Hangu and Bannu.

Investigations have also been conducted into the registration and financing of seminaries, revealing over 700 unregistered seminaries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) ─ of which 145 were classified 'highly sensitive', while 147 Punjab seminaries were found to be foreign-funded.

However, the Jamaat-i-Islami maintains that seminaries are not involved in terrorism, while the Ittehadul Tanzeemat-i-Madaris has vowed to resist action against seminaries.

As of February, 1,934 suspects have been arrested from Punjab, 1,533 from Sindh, 6,038 from KP, 460 from Balochistan, 505 from Islamabad Capital Territory, seven from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 10 from GB and 129 from Fata.

Security agencies have conducted 9,413 operations in Punjab, 1,577 in Sindh, 2,724 in Khyber KP, 39 in Balochistan, 336 in Islamabad, 720 in AJK, 21 in GB and 56 in Fata.