PESHAWAR (Staff Report) – The whole country has been put on a red alert as nation Wednesday marks first anniversary of the APS Peshawar massacre in which 151 people were killed including 144 children on December 16, 2014.
Law enforcement agencies began search operation in the outskirts of all major cities of the country to avoid any possible security situation.
In Peshawar all areas around Army Public School are being thoroughly searched and monitored since beginning of December. During the different search and identity verification operations Police arrested over a hundred suspects including Afghan refugees who failed to provide their proper identity documents.
During raids in Swabi, Charsada, Tank and Kohat more than 500 people were taken into custody while forces also recovered explosive material and unlicensed weapons.
At least one suspected militant was killed during a search operation in Tank district when he attempted to flee with a grenade in his hand and was shot dead by the police.
Sindh Police IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali also Sunday directed all DIGs to take extraordinary security measures in the whole province ahead of APS attack anniversary. Special police teams have been constituted with the coordination of other security agencies to meet any security threat, he said in a statement.
Meanwhile as many as 13 suspected terrorists were killed in Barnat area of Awaran when a search operation turned into a shootout between the security agencies and a group of militants.
In Lahore the Counter Terrorism Department arrested as many as four people from the Punjab University including three assistant professors and a student during a raid on Monday.
The suspects were arrested on the allegations of having links with a banned outfit and shifted to unidentified location following the raid.
Earlier on December 2 as many four terrorists involved in facilitating the attackers of Army Public School Peshawar were hanged in Kohat jail after a trial in military court and rejected of mercy pleas by President Mamnoon Hussain.
Last year on December 16 a group of terrorists attacked Army Public School in Peshawar and killed as many as 151 people including children. As a result an intensive operation was conducted by Pakistan army’s Special Services Group (SSG) to clear the school killing all seven attackers.
