KOHAT: Kohat police on Sunday arrested a wanted commander of a banned outfit involved in killing of dozens of security personnel and carrying head money of Rs2 million. He was held after tough resistance from the mountains of Lachi tehsil.

DSP Lachi Sher Afsar told journalists that the intelligence section of the police had received a tip-off that the terrorist was hiding in Ghorzandi area, after which a team of elite force was constituted. He said the team surrounded the mountainous area where he was hiding and was asked to surrender, but instead he started firing at the police.

However, after sometime he handed himself over to the police, he added, maintaining that the terrorist had been shifted to an unknown place for interrogation.

Sources said the alleged terrorist identified only as Din had been avoiding arrest since 2007 when the anti-state activities of banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan peaked. He used to hide in Afghanistan and tribal areas after carrying out sabotage acts in the settled districts. He had survived many air strikes in which his accomplices had been killed. He also ran a terrorist training camp in 2012 which was destroyed by the security forces.

Many operations had been conducted for his arrest, but with no result.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018