KOHAT, Sept 28 The Frontier Corps and police arrested at least 27 suspected militants during a joint search operation in Kohat on Sunday.

Sources said that 14 of the arrested persons were local activists of some banned organisations and the rest of them belonged to Waziristan and Darra Adamkhel. They were put in the lock up of the Saddar police station from where army took away four suspects for interrogation.

The operation was conducted in Tappi, Kharmatu, Bilitang, Togh Bala, Bakizai, Mirozai, Dhodha, Babri Banda, Shadi Khel and many other villages. The operation was still in progress till filing of this report on Sunday evening.

Officials said that security forces were making it sure to clear the Rawalpindi and Bannu roads from the militants where they usually took refuge after operations in Darra Adamkhel.

DARRA SITUATION The arms-manufacturing town of Darra Adamkhel wore a deserted look on Sunday and very thin traffic was seen passing through Kohat tunnel on the first day of its reopening after 30 days due to imminent fear of attack by militants.

The officials of at Kohat tunnel Toll Plaza told Dawn that normally 13,000 to 14.000 vehicles passed through the tunnel but on Sunday since 6am till noon only a few hundred vehicles had used the route.

They said that it was due to the disinformation spread by the people that militants were still hiding in the area.

A few old men roaming in Darra Adamkhel bazaar said that tribesmen had not opened their shops as most of them had migrated to adjoining district of Kohat and Peshawar during the military operation.

Not a single family had returned to Darra Adamkhel, despite lifting of curfew and opening of the Kohat tunnel and Indus Highway for public, they added.

The military after taking control of Darra Adamkhel and Kohat tunnel had completely closed the link road connecting Hangu road with Indus Highway as a precaution against suicide bombers which was also one of the reasons behind thin traffic on the road.

The heavy vehicles were also using the alternative route of Kohat-Nizampur road in view of their last experience when tunnel was opened for traffic after a similar situation in February last and militants started kidnapping and killing the passengers and drivers.