PESHAWAR: At least 12 suspected militants were killed, several others injured and over 200 arrested in air strikes in North Waziristan and search operations in the Frontier Region of Tank and Swabi district, while the residence of Lahore bomb attack facilitator Anwarul Haq was demolished in the Bajaur tribal region on Monday.

The houses of several suspected militants in Bajaur were sealed.

According to sources, eight people were killed and six others injured as fighter jets pounded suspected militant hideouts in the Wacha Bibi area of North Waziristan.

Intelligence sources said the aircraft attacked the hideouts in Dattakhel tehsil along the Afghan border after reports that militants were regrouping in the area. Several hideouts were destroyed.

In FR Tank, four suspected militants, including a son of a former leader of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Asmatullah Shaheen, were killed.

Son of a former TTP leader among four dead in predawn raid in Tank

According to sources, Shaheen’s son Omar, Wasiullah, Zalam Uddin alias Zalmak and Zaman alias Tufan were killed during a predawn raid in the Pang area. Two submachine guns, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher RPG-7, nine mortar shells, a pistol and explosives were seized from the hideout and a suspect was arrested.

The security personnel also destroyed several other suspected hideouts of militants in the area.

Security personnel and local tribal people demolished the residence of Anwarul Haq, the alleged facilitator of the recent suicide attack in Lahore, in his hometown Bar Kalan, 20km northwest of Khar, in a joint action.

Anwar was arrested and is reported to have confessed to having facilitated and brought the Afghan bomber to Lahore for the suicide attack on a protest sit-in on The Mall. His brothers Khalilullah and Hameedullah, sons of Fazalur Rehman, were also arrested a couple of days ago.

The security personnel and residents also sealed 60 houses in various areas of Mamond tehsil of suspected TTP militants hiding in Afghanistan and attacking Pakistani installations and security personnel from across the border.

The sources said the men had vacated their houses and their families were hiding in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, six people were arrested during search and combing operations in the area.

Swabi police and personnel of other law enforcement agencies arrested 250 more people on the third day of ongoing search and strike operations.

District police chief Muhammad Sohaib Ashraf told Dawn that the operations had been carried out in Chota Lahor, Tordher, Jehangira, Manki and suburban areas.

Border vigilance

Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt visited the Loi Shalman area of Khyber Agency, where he was given a briefing on the security situation.

According to an Inter-Services Public Relations statement, he interacted with troops deployed on the forward posts.

Artillery guns, which had targeted militant hideouts across the border in Lalpura district of Afghanistan, remained silent on Monday.

The sources said that additional army contingents were dispatched to the checkposts set up on hilltops along the border near Torkham and Shalman.

The army has also deployed armed personnel carriers on strategic locations, besides increasing patrolling of the areas where infiltration of militants from Afghanistan is feared.

Haji Pazir Gul in North Waziristan, Ihsan Bittni in Tank, Anwarullah Khan in Bajaur, Muqadam Khan in Swabi and Ibrahim Shinwari in Khyber Agency contributed to this report.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017