CHARSADDA: Police claimed to have foiled a major terrorism bid and arrested two militants affiliated with the Sheikh Khalid group of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

District police officer Suhail Khalid told a press conference here on Friday that heavy weapons, including suicide vests, were recovered from the arrested terrorists.

Arrested persons were identified as Mohammad Daud and Mohammad Ilyas. They were arrested from a compound in Khanjer Abad locality. After the arrests, police were put on alert in the district.

The DPO said the outlaws had confessed to their involvement in 109 acts of terrorism, including attacks on Frontier Constabulary headquarters in Shabqadar in 2011. He said Daud and Ilyas were involved in attack on Shabqadar Fort in which more than 100 recruits were killed.

He said Sheikh Khalid group was being operated from Afghanistan and the arrested persons were planning to carry out attacks at local courts, police mobile units and a university. DPO Khalid said terrorists provided clue about the place to the police where they had dumped weapons and ammunition. The weapons recovered included two suicide vests, 100 hand grenades, nine rockets, huge quantity of explosives, a rocket launcher, electric detonators, remote controlled timers and mortar shells, he added. The police officer that intelligence-based information led to the arrest of two militants. He said another terrorist, commander Sajid Zaman, who was carrying Rs5 million head money managed to escape.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2017