ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Minister for Interior Faisal Saleh Hayat on Friday said the search operation would continue in the tribal belt adjoining Afghanistan, as reports suggest more terrorists were hiding there.

"We will continue screening the area to flush out the terrorist elements hiding in different pockets of the tribal areas," he said talking to journalists here at Parliament House.

Commending the role of the local populace, he said, they have been cooperating with the administration and certain terrorist hideouts were identified by them. Answering a question about the number of arrested terrorists, he said, "in this operation we want to purge the area of terrorist elements."

About the identification of those terrorists who were arrested during Tuesday's operation, he said their identification will be ascertained before disclosure. However, he confirmed that they are around two dozen in number.

Answering another question, he said, the US had been extending cooperation to Pakistan. When his attention was drawn towards the brutal murder of two sisters in Gadap area, he said, it is a highly condemnable incident and all those found guilty would be brought to justice, no matter how influential they are.

"I have spoken to the Inspector General of Police Sindh asking him to conduct an independent enquiry into the incident and take strict action against those policemen who were involved in it," he said. He confirmed the hijacking of a passenger bus in Loralai area and said the provincial police had been struggling to release the hostages at the earliest.

Regarding the security arrangements during Muharram, he said, stringent security measures were already in place while the paramilitary police had been deployed in the most sensitive areas marked by the respective provincial governments. -APP