KOHAT: The police on Sunday foiled a bid to smuggle automatic weapons from gun-manufacturing Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision to Bannu and Waziristan districts.

Addressing a press conference, ASP Mohammad Nabeel Khokhar along with other officers said a team constituted on a tip-off was checking vehicles at Muslimabad checkpost on the Indus Highway when they stopped a suspicious car coming from Darra Adamkhel.

Upon search they recovered eight Kalashnikovs, 142 9mm pistols and 75,000 cartridges from its secret cavities and arrested the carriers named Khalil Afridi and Pyao Khan, belonging to Darra Adamkhel.

The ASP said the possibility of weapons being smuggled to restive Waziristan to carry out terrorism acts there could not be ruled out.

He said military operations cleared Waziristan of thousands of heavy and small weapons, which the residents brought to Bannu to sell out to locals.

Meanwhile, the police arrested an extortionist from Jawaki Banda area on Hangu road on Sunday.

Police said the accused identified as Khurshid Khan was demanding Rs1 million from a cloth merchant, and had also deprived many people of money at gunpoint.

A statement said several cases had been registered against him in the cantonment police station. A Kalashnikov and a pistol were also recovered during the raid on a house.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019