RAWALPINDI: After it was announced that the army will be conducting an operation against terrorists in the province, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab has started preparing a list of activists of banned outfits who have been placed on the fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

After the list is prepared, the provincial government will decide if any of the fourth schedulers should be arrested, said a senior police officer, who added that the list was being made just to keep an eye on the fourth schedulers.

The provincial government has placed more than 4,400 suspected militants on its watch list and 109 of those suspected to have links with banned outfits are missing from their homes, according to a list prepared by the law enforcement agencies.

Of all the fourth schedulers, 267 are from Rawalpindi of whom 17 were placed by the Rawalpindi police, 145 by the Attock police, 53 by the Chakwal police and 16 by the Jhelum police.

Of these, 16 have been missing from their homes since 2010 and CTD has started a search for these missing persons after the bombing in Lahore, according to a senior police official.

The missing men are thought to have connections with banned outfits including Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Those on the list are now being strictly monitored by the police, and the fourth schedulers have been reporting their presence at their registered home addresses to their local police daily, said a senior official at CTD.

Fourth schedulers are required to provide a surety bond to the concerned police regarding good behaviour and peaceful conduct after they are released from jail. They are also required to inform the respective police when they leave their hometown and when they return.

Among those put on the fourth schedule are also individuals who have returned from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, those who trained in Afghanistan, those released from Afghan prisons, Lal Masjid elements, many who were just released from jail and those still serving time.

Those on the watch list who were released from Guantanamo Bay detention camp belong to Lahore, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Sargodha.

The watch list also includes 287 militants from Faisalabad, 238 from Sargodha, 193 from Multan, 78 from Sahiwal, 111 from Dera Ghazi Khan, 257 from Bahawalpur and 26 were placed by the Lahore police and includes 29 individuals from Sheikhupura and 146 from Gujranwala.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016