QUETTA, July 11: Police have arrested 15 people for their alleged involvement in bomb, rocket and hand-grenade attacks in various areas of Balochistan, and for targeting official residences and buildings.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Chaudhary Mohammad Yaqub, Inspector General of Police, Balochistan, said the suspected militants had confessed to their involvement in subversion activities and disclosed the presence of Farari camps in Chaghai, Bolan and Kalat areas, from where they were operating.

He said other than those in Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts, about 20 Farari camps, each comprising 20 to 25 people, are being run in these areas, mostly by people from the Marri tribe.

“We will soon take action against these camps with the help of other law enforcement agencies,” he added.

He said a coalmine owner, Habibullah Marri, was also arrested from Mach. He was extending financial support to these camps in Bolan by collecting “bhata” from other coalmine owners of the area.

The IGP said four of the suspects arrested from the Nushki area of Chaghai district confessed to their involvement in a rocket attack on Chief Minister Jam Yousuf’s residence in Kalat. They admitted carrying out bomb attacks on passenger trains, railway tracks at Quetta-Zahidan section and the Balochistan High Court car parking, he said, adding they also identified four Farari camps in Nushki.

“They were involved in 31 cases of subversion - 12 in Nushki and 19 in Bolan district,” he said.

He said one of the suspects, Kamal Khan, is a graduate from Balochistan University. He said he joined a Farari camp in 2003 and received training there just because of joblessness. He said he was being paid Rs6,000 a month. He informed police about 17 militants operating in these areas, said Ch. Yaqub.

Those arrested from Much were involved in a hand-grenade attack on the house of one Abdul Jabbar in which his two children were killed and five other family members were injured, he said, adding they also confessed to killing two employees of Balochistan Development Authority in Bolan, as well as three labourers in Aabgum.

The IGP claimed that after the arrest of the mentioned suspects, subversion activities had declined.