Army school attack planner among five terrorists arrested

MIRANSHAH: Five militants, including a wanted terrorist involved in an attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, have been arrested by security forces during search operations in North Waziristan and Hangu.
Security officials said on Saturday they had arrested four terrorists during a search operation in Razmak subdivision of North Waziristan Agency.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement said the terrorists were apprehended during an operation conducted on the basis of intelligence information.
“On a tip-off, a group of four terrorists was chased and two of them were apprehended in the Razmak Bazaar while the two others hid in a nearby compound. They were followed and after a cordon and search operation, both were nabbed,” the statement said.
Besides some other areas of North Waziristan, the government didn’t carry out a military operation in Razmak subdivision apparently due to its belief that these places had not been strongholds of the militants.
Also, the residents of Razmak subdivision were allowed to stay in their villages unlike the rest of the population in North Waziristan who were told to vacate their homes and evacuate to Bannu and other districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
There are also reports that local and foreign militants had exploited the situation and most of them had shifted to Razmak and its surrounding areas to evade the military offensive.
A local Taliban commander Halim Khan is also stated to be staying in his native Razmak town and had announced to remain peaceful when the government launched the Zarb-e-Azb military operation against the militants in North Waziristan on June 15, 2014.
Halim Khan was a feared commander of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led North Waziristan-based Taliban. They were not part of the TTP and were once considered pro-government.
Our Hangu correspondent adds: Security forces on Saturday arrested a militant commander during a raid in the Doaba area of Hangu, official sources said.
The sources said security personnel raided the residence of the militant identified as Baseer. The militant, the sources said, managed to escape towards a nearby mountain, but the soldiers apprehended him after a chase.
The arrested terrorist was reportedly involved in the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Basheer had prepared suicide jackets used by terrorists during the APS attack.
The sources said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had offered a bounty of Rs0.5 million on his head.