LAKKI MARWAT, Feb 10: The government has deployed personnel of Frontier Reserve Police and Frontier Constabulary along the Indus Highway to avert hijacking of cargo vehicles by highwaymen.

Officials said that police and paramilitary forces would jointly operate along the Indus Highway for providing safe passage to truckers on the main trade route linking the province with Karachi.

“Five platoons of the Frontier Reserve Police and two of the Frontier Constabulary have started patrolling the Indus Highway,” said an official here on Saturday.

He said that makeshift checkpoints would be set up along the highway.

Some nine loaded vehicles coming to Peshawar from Karachi have been hijacked by highwaymen during the last two weeks.

On Thursday, three loaded vehicles were hijacked in the Ghaznikhel area.

A police official told this correspondent that 10 to 15 personnel would remain present round the clock to protect the highway in Ghaznikhel and Tajori areas of the district.

Police said that the people who are involved in the hijacking of vehicles had not yet been identified.