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| Two killed as search operation triggers clash |
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Two Afghan minors were killed and seven others including three cops injured when inhabitants of the Shamshatoo refugee camp clashed with personnel of paramilitary Frontier Corps and Frontier Police who were carrying out a massive cleanup operation against suspected militants.
The security personnel, backed by armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and commandoes, arrested 45 suspected militants during raids in different houses at the camp even after the clash. Computers, CDs, documents and other material were also taken into custody from various mud-houses of the Afghan refugees.
The action was planned after a cache of explosives and devices were recovered during a raid at the camp a few days back. According to NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the seized explosives were sufficient to blow up the entire provincial capital.
“As FC and police contingents cordoned off the Shamshatoo refugee camp on Tuesday, miscreants opened fire at the security personnel from their houses while minors came out to protest and block the way of the law-enforcers,” the capital city police officer (CCPO) Peshawar, Liaqat Ali Khan, told The News. He said that it was not confirmed as to who hit the two minors, who were killed in the clash.
The cops, according to an eyewitness, tried to force the protesting people from their way but they continued chanting slogans and pelting stones. This forced the cops to baton charge the residents.
The two minors killed in the blast were identified as Inamullah and Abdullah. The wounded people included four refugees and three cops, who were taken to the hospital. Later the security personnel searched all the suspicious dwellings and arrested around 45 people from the area. They were shifted to a secret place where they were being interrogated for their links with terrorists.
Shamshatoo is an old refugee camp, established in the early 1980s about 15 kilometres southeast of the city. It has been hosting hundreds of thousands Afghans who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and took refuge in Pakistan. Such camps were later suspected of producing militants as well as criminals, threatening the peace of the country, NWFP and particularly Peshawar.
The Shamshatoo camp is often known as the Hekmatyar camp, alluding to the Afghan mujahideen leader and former prime minister Gulbaddin Hekmatyar who is resisting the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan and is now a wanted man.
A large section of the Shamshatoo camp has been vacated after its dwellers repatriated to their homeland. But still a large number was residing there and running small businesses. Located close to the mountains between Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat, the area has proved to be a safe haven for criminals and terrorists in the past.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
