KOHAT, Dec 1: Police on Saturday formally arrested a soldier of the Swat Scouts for allegedly blowing up music and CD shops in Kohat on Friday, reinforcing fears that some extremists and militants had made inroads even into security forces of the country.

Jan Mohammad, a soldier of the Swat Scouts currently serving at the Gomal Zam Dam, was picked up by Kohat City police for blowing up shops in the area and harassing mobile and CD shopkeepers and the owner of the China Plaza on Friday.

The owner of the plaza told Dawn that he had been receiving threatening letters and telephone calls over the past one year, asking him to expel mobile and video shopkeepers from the building and rent the shops to those businessmen who ensured doing other businesses.

On Friday, shopkeepers informed the Rescue-15 police that a suspicious man with a long beard was present in the area and he had threatened them with blowing up their shops.

The Rescue-15 police staff immediately reached the plaza and arrested the man and was taken to city police station.

Earlier, the police were reluctant to register a case against him after he showed his official identity card, identifying him as Jan Mohammad, a soldier of the Swat Scouts.

However, after consulting senior officials of the police and other law-enforcement agencies, police registered a case against him on Saturday.

During the investigation, the accused confessed to blowing up a shop on the Jail Road two months ago, saying he had done so on the directives of ‘Amir-ul-Momineen’.

He further told the police that he had come to Kohat after taking 11days’ leaves (from Nov 22 to Dec 3) from the Swat Scouts and was staying at the house of his uncle in the area.