KOHAT, April 6: A member of a banned organization was arrested on Monday during a raid in the Kohat Development Authority township by personnel of a covert agency, officials said.

They said that Mujeebur Rehman of Sipah-i-Sihaba was picked up by the Inter-Services Intelligence on suspicion of Al Qaeda links. Officials said that the man was being questioned about the whereabouts of people hiding in the North and South Waziristan tribal agencies, whom he had met in the past.

Reports indicated that the agency had received information regarding the possibility of Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants, who had fled the tribal region of Wana, might try to contact their old acquaintances in other extremist organisations and might try to use Kohat as a transit route to reach the tribal area of the Orakzai Agency, headquarters and the Taliban in Pakistan.

Interestingly, following the military operation in the Waziristan area, the district government had asked the local people to provide complete information about new visitors renting a house or a shop to their respective police stations. The police had announced through loudspeakers in the entire city to check the background of all newcomers before allowing them to reside in their area.