TIMERGARA, Feb 5: The Lower Dir police on Saturday raided a house in Chakdara refugee camp and arrested five suspected Afghan militants, official sources told Dawn .

The sources said that on a tip-off a police party, led by deputy superintendent of police Khalid Khan, raided the house of Maulvi Jalaluddin at the refugee camp and arrested him along with his four sons, including Haroonur Rashid, Bihlol Khan, Saeedullah and Salahuddin.

SHO Badshah Hazrat, SHO Nowsherawan and other police officials took part in the operation. One of the team members told this reporter that they had information that Jalaluddin had regular contacts with the Pakistani and Afghan militants.

The sources said that police also recovered a cache of arms, including an LMG rocket, one LMG barrel, 10 kilogrammes of explosives, two hand-grenades, five detonators, 22 explosive crackers, 13 fuses and 300 cartridges from the house.

Residents said that Maulvi Jalaluddin was a prayer leader at the refugee camp from the last many years.

The Chakdara police have registered a case against all the accused, who were shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

TRAFFIC SUSPENDED: Residents of Khall and Odigram in Dir Lower on Saturday said that recent heavy rains had washed away temporary bridges, causing traffic suspension in their areas.

Talking to media persons, they said that after the devastation caused by the last year's flash floods some locals had installed temporary bridges at Khall and Odigram.

They said that people at Khall again started to cross the Panjkora river through chairlifts they had set up on self-help basis. They said that owners of the temporary bridges used to receive money from the vehicles passing through the bridges at Odigram.

“Now the recent rains have again damaged these temporary bridges and the link road at Khall after which traffic is suspended,” they said and demanded of the government to expedite reconstruction work on these bridges.