KOHAT: The Hangu police arrested six members of a gang, including a village council secretaryand an official of Nadra office, Kohat, for being involved in making computerised national identity cards for Afghan refugees.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Hangu district police officer Nisar Ahmed Khan said CNICs were being made by changing the civil registration management system (CRMS) numbers in connivance with a Nadra employee, Khalid, who was a resident of Sharkardarra, Kohat, and had been absconding.

He said the gang had also sent one person to Saudi Arabia on a passport prepared on a fake CNIC with CRMS numbers obtained from Nadra system.

He said family tree and computerised data of all the members, who had been issued the Pakistani citizen cards, would be collected after investigating the arrested persons.

Those arrested also include a councillor

He said Hangu’s Sarokhel village council secretary Waleedur Rehman was among those having been arrested.

He identified the other arrested persons as an Afghan refugee, Matiullah Khan, Pervez Khan and Islam Badshah of Kharishta Banda area of Hangu, Mohammad Zahoor from Kurram district and Abid Javed from Togh Bala, Kohat.

The DPO said efforts were underway to arrest the remaining eight members of the gang. He said all had been booked under sections 109, 420, 419, 468, 164, and 162 of the Foreigners Act.

Meanwhile, the Kohat police on Monday arrested a three-member gang of thieves while trying to take away pipes of an underground water supply scheme after cutting them into pieces in Shakardarra Town here.

The police also took into custody the gadgets used to cut pipes, a statement issued from the office of district police officer Farhan Khan said.

It said the thieves tried to take the pipes to Kalabagh area of neighbouring Mianwali district of Punjab to sell them at throwaway rates.

The thieves were identified as Kabir, Khizar and Ashiq, belonging to Shakardarra.

Also, the Hangu police on Monday arrested a man, who had killed his nephew inside the house of his sister on Saturday.

Wahid Gul had opened fire after a brawl with his sister and her sons, killing his 12-year-old nephew, Saqib Jan and injuring another, Mohammad Imtiaz.

The injured, Imtiaz had nominated his uncle for the murder.

The accused was arrested from Warasta area.

TWO KILLED: A boy committed suicide after a bullet from a pistol he was playing with killed his younger brother in Ghamkol Afghan refugee camp on Monday, the police said.

The police said Imran ended his life over the extreme grief of losing his brother, Irfan. The family belonged to the Khanewal area of Punjab.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023