KOHAT: The Mohammad Riaz Shaheed police busted gangs of highway robbers, women inter-provincial smugglers and facilitators of extortionists on Monday.

DSP Rokhan Zeb told journalists here that police also held drug peddlers and several criminals and recovered weapons and drugs from their possession during targeted and strike and strategic operations supervised by SP operations Salahuddin Kundi.

He said the police on a tip-off about presence of women smugglers in Saleem Town on the Rawalpindi road constituted a team which raided a house and arrested Zahida of Mianwali and Kiran of Peshawar, recovering over 13 kilogrammes of hashish from them.

He said the smugglers had brought the consignment from Orakzai for onward smuggling to Punjab. They were shifted to prison, DSP Zeb said.

Meanwhile, on the complaints of people, the police started round-the-clock patrol on the Rawalpindi Road and arrested a six-member gang of highway robbers.

They were identified as Mohammad Rehman, Ismail Khan, Mateen Gul, Imran Khan, Zeeshan Ahmed and Akhtar Gul, the police officer said, adding cash, mobile phones, jewellery and six pistols were confiscated from them.

Similarly, the police held two drug peddlers, Amir and Tariq, from Merozai area and seized two and a half kilogrammes of hashish and a Kalashnikov, a repeater and a pistol from them. A case was registered against them, said Mr Zeb.

He said during the targeted operation they arrested a six-member gang of facilitators of extortionists and several criminals.

The operations were also carried out on Bannu Road, Tappi, Togh Bala, Meri Colony, Miangan Colony, Akhtarabad, Aminabad and College Town from where two proclaimed offenders among 46 criminals were arrested.

The police seized a Kalashnikov, two repeaters, 10 pistols, six chargers and cartridges from them. Cases were registered against many of them while others were being interrogated, the police officer concluded.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2018