KOHAT, Sept 26 Helicopter gunships targeted hideouts of militants in Tora China area as security forces arrested eight militants during operation in three villages of Darra Adamkhel on Saturday.

The security forces launched search operation in Akhorwal, Shpalkiwal and Shakiwal areas of the Frontier Region Kohat and rounded up the militants. They were shifted to unknown place for interrogation.

Officials said that helicopter gunships also took part in the operation and pounded the hideouts of the militants but no casualty was reported from the Taliban side.

ATTACK PROBE Preliminary investigations into the Katcha Pukka suicide attack have found no concrete evidence of the involvement of any banned religious outfit.

The investigators, supervised by DIG Kohat, said that initial report about the Katcha Pukka incident had been dispatched to the provincial government which included eyewitness accounts of the people, statements of the injured, estimate of property damages, number of deaths and injuries.

It may be recalled that a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden jeep into another vehicle on the main Kohat-Hangu road near the Katcha Pukka Square on September 18, as a result 41 people were killed and over 65 were injured whereas 49 shops including two shopping plazas and 16 vehicles were completely destroyed.

The blast was being termed as an attack on a particular sect but the casualties revealed that the victims included both Sunni and Shia people. Detail of property losses had been sent in a separate report to the provincial government for compensating the victims.

Investigators are suspecting foreign hand in the attack as no banned religious organisation or terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the attack and the Taliban had not been found involved in the incident.

The DIG has sought additional force from the provincial government to avoid attacks on police mobiles and a plan to enhance security at mosques.

Meanwhile, an investigation team has sent the fingers prints of a suicide bomber to the Nadra office in Islamabad for identification. The bomber had killed himself inside a house in Kohat bazaar on August 21.