Security forces have killed 25 militants in Peshawar’s frontier region.....

PESHAWAR: Security forces have killed 25 militants in Peshawar’s frontier region in the first four days of in ‘Operation Spring Cleaning’, according to officials.

Addressing a joint press conference in the Spina Thana near Darra Adamkhel on Saturday, city police chief Liaqat Ali Khan, Frontier Constabulary Commandant Safwat Ghayur, the Frontier Corps’ (FC) Brigadier Faiz and the army’s Col Qaiser said the operation was launched on the basis of intelligence reports that around 300 militants were setting up a “command-and-control system” in Pastowany area of Peshawar’s frontier region, intimidating the local population and using the area in a bid to mount an attack on Peshawar.

The officials said that operation was jointly launched on February 24, and would continue until the elimination of militants form the area. They said one a FC troop had been killed in fighting and five others injured.

The officials said while several militants had been taken into custody, they put up “tough resistance”. They said the arrested militants belonged to Darra, Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Fateh Jang.

They said huge caches of arms and ammunition and eight suicide jackets had been seized during the operation and “militant headquarters and hideouts destroyed”. They said “training material” and “literature” had also been confiscated.

According to the APP news agency, police said on Sunday 17 bullet-riddled bodies of suspected militants had been found in Darra Adamkhel.