KOHAT, July 25 At least seven policemen were injured and three official vehicles were damaged in a blast while defusing a remote controlled improvised explosive device on the Indus Highway on Saturday.

A tractor driver, Abdul Munaf, passing through the area was also injured in the unexpected explosion when the IED was being defused by experts of the bomb disposal squad. The blast caused severe damage to a police motorcycle and two mobile pick-ups.

The injured included the in-charge of the bomb disposal squad, Mohammad Akbar Khan, a technician, assistant sub-inspector Saadat Habib, sub-inspector Mohammad Hafeez, constables Javed Iqbal, Qaiser Khan, Khalid Mahmood and Ahmed Ali.

The police media cell informed Dawn that the Rescue 15 received a telephone call that a suspicious gas cylinder was lying on the roadside in Guddi Banda on the Indus Highway (Kohat-Bannu road).

A team of the bomb disposal squad was sent to the scene where they found that a 10kg heavy remote controlled bomb also fitted with a timer had been placed by some terrorists to target police and military convoys.

The bomb disposal squad was defusing the multi-system explosive device when it went off with a big ban.

The rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the scene which shifted all the injured to the KDA divisional headquarters hospital for treatment. The condition of all the victims was stable, the hospital sources confirmed.

Meanwhile, the police arrested 34 suspected militants and seized huge cache of arms from their possession during a search operation in southern parts of the district on Saturday.

District Police Officer Dilawar Khan Bangash told Dawn that the Saddar police was ordered to launch an operation along the Indus Highway on Bannu road to nab the terrorists behind the blast earlier in the day.

Three of the arrested belonged to the tribal area. They were shifted to an unknown place for interrogation.

The seized arms included five Kalashnikovs, seven light machine guns, six shotguns and nine pistols. The operation was carried out in Kharmato, Dhodha, Shakoori Banda, Dheri Banda, Guddi Banda and the adjoining hills.

FOILED The Kohat police foiled an attempt of smuggling huge quantity of hashish from tribal area to Karachi and arrested the carriers along with car near Zero Point on Saturday.

The police claimed that they had information that two inter-provincial smugglers would try to smuggle hashish from Darra Adamkhel, located in the Frontier Region of Kohat.

The Jarma police checkpost staff started checking vehicles at Zero Point on the Indus Highway. They stopped a car number LOG-2171 for checking and on search found more than 10kg of finest quality of hashish from its secret cavities.

The smugglers Raza Khan and Abdul Kahliq, residents of Takht-i-Nasrati, were shifted to investigation branch.