KOHAT, Sept 30 A local commander of banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan involved in planning murders of security personnel, bomb blasts and kidnappings was arrested in an operation in Saroo Khel area of Hangu district on Wednesday.

Police claimed that Shah Mohammad alias Mama used to chalk out plans for subversive acts and select sites for terrorism. During preliminary interrogation he admitted to have killed several security personnel, attacked the vehicle of Thall police and targeted with heavy weapons an ambulance, which was taking injured to hospital, last month.

He was present in his home when police raided it and arrested him without facing any resistance. The arrested militant commander was shifted to some unknown place for interrogation.

STUDENT RECOVERED A student, kidnapped by militants two months ago from Alizai area of Kohat, was recovered from Orakzai Agency in an operation on Wednesday.

Officials told Dawn that police had arrested a militant Shah Jehan a few days ago from Bosti Tang area and he disclosed the whereabouts of the kidnapped student, Jamil Hussain, during interrogation.

Militants had demanded Rs2 million as ransom from the parents of the grade IX student. Later the political administration raided a house in Dappa area of Teerah valley in Orakzai Agency and safely recovered the student. The four accomplices of Shah Jehan managed to escape.

The victim had been chained and locked in a room. He told political administration that after delay in the payment of ransom the kidnappers used to beat him daily and threatened that he would be killed if the money was not paid.

Police had started search operation in Ustarzai area for the arrest of the remaining members of the group.

Meanwhile, Kohat commissioner has termed cooperation between local elders and the government as indispensable for defeating militancy in the restive parts of the region.

Chairing a meeting in his office on Wednesday, Commissioner Mohammad Kahlid Khan Umarzai said that police and civil administration should meet the elders of the area and solve their genuine problems so that the weakening writ of the government could be fully restored.

The meeting discussed the difficulties faced by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited in laying of 111-kilometre long pipeline in Banda Daud Shah, general law and order in the entire region, sectarian tension in Hangu, training of FC, war between Bezote and Bangash tribes over disputed land and ban on the drilling by the Hungarian MOL oil company in Dalan area of Hangu.

The commissioner said that he would soon visit the entire region and meet local elders to prepare and launch a new strategy with consensus for paving the way for lasting peace.