KOHAT: The Hangu police on Monday foiled two separate attempts of smuggling hashish and ammunition and arrested four carriers belonging to Kurram Agency and Thall tehsil of the district.

The police arrested a carrier, Rehman Gul of Thall at Jozara checkpost on the border with Kohat district. He was smuggling 18,000 cartridges to Punjab in a van.

He was shifted to the area police station and an FIR was registered against him. Later, he was remanded to police investigation branch by a court.

In another seizure, the police recovered seven kilogrammes of hashish and arrested three smugglers belonging to Batkhela.

A police official said the smugglers travelling in a car told the police that their destination was Peshawar. They had purchased the consignment in Sadda tehsil of Kurram. They were identified as Fazal Subhan, Haider Ali and an Afghan refugee Izzat Mir. They were booked by the Hangu Saddar police and a court sent them to prison.

RESTRICTIONS ON SEMINARIES: A spokesman of Wiqaful Madaris has said the seminaries have rendered sacrifices for the country in difficult times, and the conspiracies to defame them should immediately stop.

He demanded that unnecessary restrictions on seminaries should be removed for providing free environment to students and teachers for study.

In a statement issued on Monday, Maulana Mujahideen, the caretaker of the seminaries of Kohat division, said they had nothing to hide about the students and teachers and funding therefore the registration of seminaries should continue under the 1860 Act.

He welcomed the agreement signed between Brig Zafar Iqbal, commander 77 brigade of Malakand division, and representatives of seminaries, under which seminaries could enrol students from other districts after verifying their bio-data. Foreign students could also get enrolled and have boarding facility in the seminaries after providing their whereabouts to the authorities, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2017