PESHAWAR, Nov 23: The police arrested eight touts from the premises of sessions court on the complaint of the Peshawar District Bar Association president, on Saturday.

When the officials of East Cantonment police station reached the premises of the sessions court, most of the touts slipped away, whereas eight of them were apprehended.

The arrested people were Jawed Jalal, Liaqat Major, Abdul Hameed, Asghar Khan, Mir Akber, Shamsur Rehman, Shahnawaz and Shafique. An FIR had been registered against them under sections 419/420/468/271 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The president of the district bar, Sher Afgan Khattak, had lodged a complaint with the police, stating that the touts had been doing their business in the premises of the courts.

They used to appear as sureties on behalf of various accused when bail applications were accepted. Later on, during course of proceedings the accused often disappeared and the sureties never appeared before the concerned court.

They were also accused of preparing forged documents of properties, which they produced before the courts at the time of furnishing their sureties. Moreover they were accused of deceiving litigants by depicting themselves as agents of different courts and used to get money from them on pretext of obtaining desired orders from the courts.

The president of the bar had also warned the lawyers who instead of performing their professional obligations prefer to earn money through illegal means.