Daily Times

Two target killers who allegedly gunned down the chief of the local peace committee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bara tehsil have been arrested in Peshawar on Sunday.

On Saturday, Malik Mir Alam Afridi was fatally shot by two motorcyclists near the Hayatabad Toll Plaza. Saddar Superintendent Police Sahibzada Sajjad apprised media on the development.

“The city patrol forces arrested the suspects from the Hayatabad area,” SP Sajjad added.

Authorities say the accused persons who have been identified as Sajid and Kamran have confessed to the crime during initial investigation.

Afridi was rushed to the Hayatabad Medical Complex where he was declared dead on arrival.

Afridi was a known symbol of resistance to militancy in the area of Bara tehsil.

This was the second attempt on his life as he previously survived a gun attack near Arbab Road in Peshawar in 2014. The police have also claimed to have seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from a car on the Indus Highway near Kohat.

According to the police, eight Kalashnikovs, 142 pistols and thousands of cartridges were recovered from the car during snap-checking at the Muslimabad check post. Two suspected smugglers were also taken into custody. The suspects were transporting the arms and ammunition from Darra Adam Khel to Waziristan, a police official said.

Earlier, on January 4, at least one terrorist was killed by security forces during an Intelligence Based Operation (IBO) in North Waziristan, said the army’s media wing.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, security forces conducted an IBO as part of the on-going Operation Raddul Fasaad on a suspected terrorist hide out in Tehsil Spinwam and recovered literature related to improvised explosive devices, sub-machine guns, hand grenades, spare magazines and communication equipment.

Separately, in Balochistan, the Frontier Corps also carried out an IBO in the suburbs of Qilla Saifullah and Kahan near Mawand, foiling a terrorist activity to sabotage peace in the province. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered.

Published in Daily Times, January 21^st 2019.