GILGIT, Sept 5: Two members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were arrested for allegedly killing a police officer and two military personnel who were investigating the Nanga Parbat killing case in which ten foreign mountaineers were shot dead, police said on Thursday.

“We have arrested two men who attacked the vehicle of a senior superintendent of police, killing him along with a colonel and a captain,” Muhammad Navid, the superintendent of police for Diamer district, told Dawn by phone.

He said the two suspects were seized in a raid at a house in Babusar Point in the district.

“We got a tip that two of the six men who ambushed the vehicle were hiding in the house. We dispatched a party headed by a senior officer and the two were arrested after a successful raid,” he said.

SP Navid said the arrested men were high-profile members of the TTP and were involved in several terrorist actions. The names of the suspects were Muhammad Nabi and Qaribullah.

He said the two men were being interrogated and that Qaribullah seemed to have a lot of information.

He said the suspects finalised their plans to ambush the vehicle of the SSP, who was investigating the Nanga Parbat case, about a fortnight before the attack. “They made their plans at a hotel in a local village.”

He declined to provide further details.

SP Navid claimed the TTP members in the area had been identified and were being pursued relentlessly. “They can no longer stay in this area.”