PESHAWAR, Aug 22: The law-enforcement agencies surrounded Bara town of Khyber Agency to arrest kidnappers, absconders, car snatchers and their protectors here on Thursday.

The operation clean-up against criminals and their harbourers began early in the morning and continued till the filing of this report.

No arrest has so for been reported from the area.

The Khyber political authorities warned the tribesmen to hand over criminals hiding in their area to the authorities and ensure that no criminal was provided shelter in future.

The Khasadar force (a locally-drawn tribal police), the Frontier Constabulary and para-military troops were taking part in the day-long operation. The forces sealed off the area by suspending vehicular traffic on the road leading to Jamrud and Landi Kotal.

The authorities also severed telecommunication links to the area with the rest of the country in order to force the area people to cooperate with the forces.

The traffic and communication-link suspension caused hardships to residents of various villages along the Jamrud Road.

The law-enforcement agencies positioned heavy weapons at Minar Market Chowk, Nau Gazi Baba Road, Qamarabad, Bara Qadeem and Shekhano bridge and on the rooftops around sensitive hideouts of criminals.

The authorities planned sometime ago to flush out criminals from the tribal belt which has had been a safe haven for all sorts of criminals for many years. The authorities also took support of tribal elders of various clans to get all criminals arrested.

The authorities asked the criminals to surrender voluntarily, otherwise all possible means would be used to force them to surrender. Witnesses said that the tribal elders had convened a Jirga to resolve the matter amicably but the criminals were reluctant to surrender.

Car-snatchers, kidnapper-for-ransom, drug traffickers, murderers and absconders take shelter in this and other parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Area after committing crimes in different parts of the country.

Of late, the kidnapping-for-ransom has become a thriving business. This year, kidnappers kidnapped even brothers and relatives of government ministers and top officials. The members of the law-enforcement agencies had been trying for the last several weeks to track down kidnappers, who had kidnapped two nephews of the deputy home secretary and their two friends in Peshawar.

Some of the influential captives, including the brother of a minister, secured their release after paying a huge ransom.

The Khasadar men arrested two kidnappers from a hotel near Sitara Market in Bara on Wednesday and handed them over to the CIA, Peshawar, for investigation.

They were reportedly involved in the kidnapping of the nephews of the deputy home secretary.

The Bara residents, however, didn’t rule out a showdown between the criminals and members of the law-enforcement agencies.

The Political Agent, Khyber Agency, despite many efforts could not be reached till evening. No other officials revealed the exact nature of the operation.