Alleged links with TTP: Raids being conducted for arrest of cop from Khyber

PESHAWAR: Police and the Counter-Terrorism Department were conducting raids to arrest a police constable from Khyber district for his alleged links to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The suspected links of another cop, whose identity is being withheld, with the TTP has triggered concerns among the top cops.

A source informed that CTD and police have been tasked with finding the whereabouts of the police constable who is said to have joined the militants.

"The teams concerned have been provided details of the cop, including his picture, for his arrest and to verify the serious allegations," the source said.

A senior police official, requesting anonymity, confirmed that a cop was being suspected and raids were being conducted for his arrest.

This has already triggered concerns among the top ranks of the police force. Earlier, a cop was held last year for such links with the TTP.

The Counter-Terrorism Department along with law-enforcement agencies last year arrested Constable Wali Muhammad. He was said to be the key facilitator of the attack on the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in the provincial capital on January 30, 2023.

Considered to be the biggest attack on any police headquarters in the country, 86 policemen were martyred and over 240 were wounded in the suicide blast in the central mosque of the police lines.

The then inspector general of police, Akhtar Hayat Khan, had told a press conference last year that the Counter-Terrorism Department along with law-enforcement agencies arrested the cop who was associated with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a sub-organisation of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The police chief said the accused was an important worker of the banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who facilitated the identification of the target and bringing in the suicide bomber to the police lines mosque for the biggest attack on the force.