ATTOCK: Police have arrested a Frontier Corps (FC) personnel after recovery of detonators along with a safety fuse from his possession in an attempt at Khushalgarh bridge on the Kohat-Pindi road.

The bridge borders an entry check post between Kohat district of KPK and Attock district of Punjab.

The District Police officer (DPO) Abdul Kadir Qamar told this scribe on Sunday that police stopped a Rawalpindi bound coach (E-3224), coming from Kohat district of Khyber Paktunkhwa, for routine checking at Khushalgarh checkpost on the Kohat-Pindi road.

During the checking of the vehicle, they spotted a suspicious passenger carrying a shopping bag in his hands.

From his possession, five detonators along with a 23 foot long safety fuse were recovered, which can be used to detonate the explosives both as a timer device and manually as well, he said.

The accused was immediately shifted to the Jand police station, was identified as Khalid Mehmood resident of Haripur district, KPK, the DPO said.

During a preliminary interrogation, the accused Khalid Mehmood, disclosed before the police that he is a FC serviceman and serving as a bomb disposal expert at Thal Cantonment, KPK.

The DPO further said that the accused has disclosed to the police that he was carrying it to his village for personal purpose of ground breaking, which he needs for the construction of his house.

After the disclosure, the concerned FC’s authorities were informed about the incident, who also reached the DPO headquarters and verified the identification of the accused, Qamar said.

After confirming the ID of the accused as an FC personnel, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has also been formed.

The JIT includes police investigators, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), who will probe the real motive behind the sensitive nature of the incident, he informed.

The Jand Police have also registered a case against the accused and have also obtained a two-day physical remand from the judicial magistrate Jand for want of interrogation.

Moreover the FC authorities have also initiated their own departmental inquiry in the matter, the DPO added.

To a question, the DPO said that preliminary investigation shows that the accused has so far not been proven to have any link with any terrorist organisation.

It’s also worth mentioning here that Thal is situated near the tribal area of North Waziristan.