PESHAWAR, Dec 2: Police and paramilitary forces hauled up at least 100 suspected persons in a joint operation in the rural areas of Peshawar district. The operation was launched jointly by police, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary following reports about presence of suspected persons in the rural areas of the district.

“About 600 personnel of law enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces are taking part in the operation,” sources said.

Talking to this correspondent, a senior official said that the decision to launch operation in the suburban areas was taken before Eidul Azha but it could not be materialised owing to different reasons, mainly due to deployment of personnel.

He said that the operation against suspected militants was a must as Muharram was approaching and government strictly directed them to ensure peace on the occasion. He said that during search operation on Wednesday and Thursday about 70 people including 10 proclaimed offenders were arrested.

The search operation, he said, had been conducted in Matani, Adezai, Badhber, Ormar, Bara Qadeem, Shin Dand, Faqirabad Kallay and Sarband. The official said that any delay in the operation could cause major loss to forces as militants had blown up a police van on Nov28 and injured three policemen in Ormar area.

The blowing up of a government boy primary school at Mera Balarzai in the small hours on Wednesday, he said, was another incident of challenging the forces.However, SP Abdul Kalam Khan told Dawn that the operation was launched on Nov 28 but it was kept secret. He said that at present the volunteers of lashkars had been kept at a distance as the number of personnel of law enforcement agencies was enough to conduct the operation.

Main problem, he said, was proximity tribal areas from where militants could easily enter the settled parts of Peshawar for committing crimes and escaped in case of any action against them.