KOHAT: The police on Friday seized high quality explosives and deadly weapons and ammunition from a house in Doaba area of Hangu district and arrested eight suspected terrorists.

The deputy inspector general, Kohat division, Dr Ishtiq Marwat, told Dawn by telephone from his residence that all the eight suspected terrorists were members of banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. He said that a Hangu police team raided the house after getting information that TTP men were hiding there and planning terrorist attacks.

A joint investigation team had been ordered for the interrogation of the terrorists and to know as to what were their specific targets. The head of the team would be the SP, investigation, Hangu, said Mr Marwat.

The DIG said that during preliminary investigations they had only told the police that they belonged to TTP and had camped in a house in Hangu for carrying out terrorist activities, including targeting security forces and public places.

The terrorists had been shifted to unknown place, he said, adding that their names were being kept secret to hunt down their harbourers and other members of the group in the area.

Mr Marwat further said that all the terrorists were residents of Tora Warai, a disputed land, half of which lies in lower Orakzai Agency and other half in Hangu district.

The police official informed that all the militants had been booked under the newly promulgated Protection of Pakistan Act to cope with the scourge of militancy.

An official of Doaba police station, Mohammad Idrees, said that the huge seizure included 15kg explosives, three cartridges of 20mm bore mortar, 12 premium used in conducting roadside blasts and blowing up buildings, an 82mm mortar gun,40 cartridges of 303 bore mortar, three rockets, three 107mm 12MBR fuses, one grenade, one landmine, three 82mm mortar cartridges, fifty 82mm cartridges, 25 detonators of MO2 type, 42 fuses used with 82mm mortar gun, 15 TNT, 23 hand grenades, five remote recovers, one binocular fitted on 107MM 12 MBR, one foreign made binocular, one Kalashnikov and one shotgun.

The police have registered case against the outlaws under sections 5 of the Explosives Act, section 1 of Anti Terrorism Act, 15 AA and 16 PPO.

SPECIAL ANTI-POLIO DRIVE: The district administration has vowed to extend anti-polio vaccination campaign after the end of four-day official campaign on Friday to reach maximum children to eliminate the deadly disease.

Assistant deputy commissioner, Kohat, Mohammad Fakhruddin told Dawn on telephone on Friday that they had decided to continue the polio vaccination on war footing until they had reached zero level in eradicating the childhood disease.

“There were a total of 1,000 refusal cases during the four-day campaign out of which only 28 are still denying anti-polio drops to their children. We have warned the parents that they should decide whether to give drops to children or face jail,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 22th , 2014