NOWSHERA: Police on Tuesday arrested Qari Saeed, chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) Orakzai chapter  in Nowshera; spokesman of the banned outfit denied the police claim, DawnNews reported.

Qari Saeed was arrested with an accomplice during a raid conducted by the police in the Banda Nabi village in Nowshera's Pabbi Tehsil.

Police sources said they suspected Qari Saeed was in town to collaborate a sabotage attempt on a gathering being organised to observe the second death anniversary of Mian Rashid Hussain, son of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

Rashid Hussain was gunned down in July 2010 in his ancestral town of Pabbi, Nowshera district.

Meanwhile, speaking to this correspondent from an undisclosed location over the telephone, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan denied the police claim of arresting Saeed. "Ameer Qari Saeed is safe in Orakzai," said Ehsan.