KOHAT: The police foiled an attempt of smuggling a big quantity of weapons and cartridges to North Waziristan tribal district and held an inter-provincial career on the Indus Highway here on Wednesday.

District police officer Wahid Mehmood told journalists that the tribesmen had been buying weapons from Darra AdamKhel and trying to smuggle them to the district through careers on payment.

The latest attempt, he said was among several bids to ferry weapons to the tribal district where the tribesmen had been stripped off all kinds of heavy and light arms during the operation cleanup by the army.

He said the Bilitang police stopped a vehicle near the old toll plaza, and on checking, recovered 136 pistols, a Kalashnikov, a rifle and 2,900 cartridges. The accused, Mohammad Azeem, belonged to Lakki Marwat district.

DPO Mehmood said the weapons were first to be smuggled to Bannu and then to North Waziristan, adding the Bilitang police registered the case and were interrogating the accused.

Sources said that the tribesmen in the tribal districts had old enmities and it was a custom to carry and keep weapons. Now they wanted to accumulate the weapons again, they added.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2019