KOHAT: Troops arrested five members of the Swat Taliban Shura with the help of an intelligence agency in the Railway Colony here on Wednesday.

A senior official said that security forces had arrested 15 other members of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan from Sheraki, Bostikhel, Akhorwal and Mullahkhel areas of Darra Adamkhel during a search operation. Another 21 suspects were picked up during an operation in Kohat.

Gunship helicopters supported the Darra operation.

Faces of the five Shura members, who had hired a house in the Chakar Kot locality, were covered as they were hustled into vehicles amidst tight security, eyewitnesses said.

‘Their names cannot be disclosed at the moment. We are expecting more arrests on the basis of information received from them during interrogation,’ an official said.

They are believed to have arrived in Kohat to attack army convoys and installations in Kohat and the Darra area. ‘Their target also included the army’s IX Division headquarters in the Kohat cantonment,’ he said.

The army confirmed that the ‘very successful’ raid had been carried out on a tip-off.

Meanwhile, explosives, safety fuses, two Kalashnikovs, two repeaters, three rifles, five pistols and hundreds of cartridges were seized during a joint operation in Kohat by police and security forces near the old bus-stand, Miangan Colony, the KDA township and Teerah bazaar.

Security was beefed up around government buildings, banks and in the cantonment area amid reports about the presence of an explosives-laden ‘white car’ in the city.

Earlier, security forces had arrested 18 illegal Afghan nationals on suspicion of their involvement in suspicious activities in Hangu. Police said that all of them had been expelled.