30 terrorists, carrying head money, arrested in KP in last few months

PESHAWAR: As many as 30 terrorists carrying head money up to Rs10 million and 82 accused wanted in various terror incidents have been arrested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) over the last few months.

Official sources said the operations were carried out in different districts of the province, including the newly merged districts.

"As many as 30 terrorists were arrested by the CTD with the help of other law-enforcement agencies in the last few months. Ten of them were arrested during the month of May," said a source.

The sources added that three alleged terrorists, including one carrying head money of Rs10 million and two others were killed in operations since March this year. Another wanted person, carrying Rs2 million head money, surrendered to the police in Kohat.

The government had announced head money for a number of terrorists over the last few years after which many of them were arrested. The names and pictures of some of them were also published in newspapers in a bid to arrest them with the support of the people.

"Apart from those carrying head money, the CTD also arrested 82 others declared proclaimed offenders in various incidents of terrorism in the last many years. They were at large for years," informed the source.

The source said the CTD commandos also recovered a huge quantity of explosives and ammunition from the wanted men that could have been used in future in sabotage activities.

The source said that the CTD had set up a special desk to monitor the social media networks being used by individuals and groups involved in terrorism.

"The CTD is facing a number of issues due to lack of provincial Cyber Crime laws as well as local Cyber Crime wing and experts under the command of the police or the provincial government. The local set up will help to timely work out various cases of terrorism as well as other issues of sensitive nature that can claim lives if not worked out immediately," said the source.

The source informed that the CTD had also set up a special desk to deal with the cases of extortion calls to the local people. “Some of the cases have been worked out while majority of the cases in which Afghan phone numbers or illegal gateways were used are still pending,” the source said. It added that the relevant departments and ministries have been approached with the list of the cell-phones being used in extortion calls to take up the issue with the Afghan authorities.