PESHAWAR, Feb 23: Local militants blew up five houses and three vehicles in Adezai village on the suburb of provincial metropolis on Monday.

The Adezai union council nazim, Haji Abdul Malik, told Dawn that some local militants were involved in the blasts. He added that militants had already vacated their houses and shifted to Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency and some other places.

“My servant Khurshid was intimidated by militants to leave his job, but he refused to do so and that is why they blew up his house,” the nazim said.

He alleged that the attackers including Umer, Jangriz, Raj Wali, Shahidullah, Saifulah, Bilal and Sheraz were led by militants’ amir Aurangzeb.

“We try to block all the exit points soon after the bomb blasts, but militants exploded the dynamite by leaving its detonation cable so long that they could easily exit the area prior to the explosions,” Mr Malik said.

The nazim said there were about 100 militants in and around Adezai union council but some of them were either killed in encounters with police or arrested and some of them surrendered to the law enforcement agencies and were now leading peaceful life.

He said the rest of few militants had left the area otherwise they would have been arrested so far. He said that they used to fire rockets and mortars at the houses of local people and sensitive installations and fled away.

A police official of Matani police station said that unidentified persons had planted explosives under the foundations of several houses which went off at about 1.30am and destroyed the houses.

The houses and hujras, he said, were owned by Hussain Zada, Abdul Wahab, Khurshid and others. He said a Suzuki pick-up, a truck and a motorcar were also damaged in the blasts.

The official said no casualty had been reported.

He said that police had reached the area and were searching for militants. He said that a case was registered against unidentified militants but no one had so far been arrested.

PASSPORT OFFICE RAIDED: A team of Federal Investigation Agency raided Passport Office in Peshawar and arrested two persons under corruption charges.

A sub-inspector of crime circle, Fazale Akbar, told Dawn that a complainant Khan Mohammad of Peshawar had reported that he was forced to give money for getting a passport.

“We gave Rs16000 to the complainant after noting down number of the currency notes and he gave it to an agent, Shakir, who was arrested red-handed in presence of a judicial magistrate,” the FIA official said.

He said that an employee of Passport Office, Sharif Khan, was also arrested when the agent disclosed that he was handing over the amount to him for issuing a passport to the complainant.

A case against the accused, Mr Akbar said, was registered under Section 161 of PPC and under prevention of corruption laws.