PESHAWAR, Sept 20: Police on Monday night raided three hotels in Kabari Bazaar and arrested 21 people on suspicion of immoral activities. However, all of them were booked under Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code, sources told Dawn on Tuesday. They said police had not caught the suspects red-handed and had no hard evidence to charge them under Section 377 of the PPC, related to unnatural offences.

Police raided Iqra Hotel, Shaukat Hotel and Khattak Inn in Kabari Bazaar and arrested four managers and 17 boys on suspicion of involvement in immoral activities.

The arrested managers are: Habibur Rehman, of Chitral; Azmat, of Tangi village; Ashfaq, of Azad Kashmir; and Irfan, of Peshawar.

The young men and boys arrested include Mira Jan, Ayub, Qasim, Bashir, Farooq, Munawar, Ali Hussain, Waliullah, Mumtaz, Sulaiman, Qaiser, Asif Ali and Faridullah.

During interrogation, the arrested men said the managements of the hotels had asked them to share the rooms.

Officials said they planned to conduct more raids in the coming days and keep check on the activities of boys wandering around the Cinema Road in Khyber Bazaar, a hot spot for immoral activities.