MIRAMSHAH, March 15: A seminary abandoned a few years ago but now being allegedly used as a terrorist den was blown up by security forces here on Wednesday. Army and paramilitary troops cordoned off Madressah Al Khalifa Islami near Amin checkpost, about a kilometre south of Miramshah, and blew up the place with dynamite.

The seminary is said to have been built by an Afghan cleric belonging to Mazar-i-Sharif in the late 1980s. The building was abandoned a few years ago.

An Inter-Service Public Relations press release issued in Peshawar said terrorists used the abandoned building to launch attacks on military installations.

Meanwhile, the agency’s political authorities have ordered arms dealers in Miramshah to wind up their business immediately.

The order follows imposition of a ban on display of arms in Miramshah, declaring the town as a ‘weapons free zone’, following clashes between security forces and militants.

Officials said political authorities had asked the arms dealers to shift their weapons and ammunition forthwith to some other place, and warned them that their stock would be seized if they failed to comply. Miramshah has emerged as a major arms market in the tribal area. There are more than 50 weapons shops operating in the town.

Agencies add: “The Khalifa Madressah was destroyed by security forces today as part of a campaign to deprive militants of any hideout,” an official told AFP in Miramshah.

The Afghan cleric who set up the seminary was identified as Khalifa who died several years ago. Khalifa was an associate of former Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, officials said. Haqqani is now on a US list of most wanted militants.

Last week troops and helicopter gunships destroyed seminaries run by two local clerics, Sadiq Noor and Abdul Khaleq.

North Waziristan’s Political Agent Zaheerul Islam, told Reuters that 29 people, 19 of them Afghans, had been arrested since authorities announced a drive to force out Afghans living illegally in the region.