CTD claims arresting five Afghan militants in Mardan

MARDAN: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Friday claimed to have arrested five alleged Afghan militants in a search operation and recovered a suicide jacket and weapons from them.

Speaking at a press conference here, Superintendent of Police (SP) CTD Mardan Region, Fazle Wahid Khan identified the arrested militants as Safiullah, Mohammad Alam, Lal Mohammad, Zakirullah and Sadullah, residents of Kunar province in Afghanistan.

He added that the police recovered from their possession one suicide jacket, a bomb weighing 3kg, five hand-grenades, two Kalashnikov rifles and three pistols. The SP CTD said the militants had links with the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing, (RAW). He added that the police also recovered a video from them. He maintained that the militants wanted to target a steel mills in Swabi district where Chinese engineers were working.

He explained that the accused had planned to target the Government Girls High School at Shahdand Baba Mardan and a mosque at Peshawar Cantonment. He added that the militants were being grilled to extract more information from them.