By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Two prisoners mysteriously escaped from Landikotal lockup on Friday night while border authorities foiled an arms smuggling bid from Afghanistan, sources said on Friday.
The sources said that two Afghan nationals identified as Fayaz Marufkhel and Khalid Wafadar were detained at the Torkham border crossing four days ago.
An official on the condition of anonymity told this scribed that on the directives of Islamabad police, they had arrested the two Afghan citizens and handed them over to Landikotal police for further investigation.
He said the arrested persons were wanted by Islamabad police in several cases including looting a home of a high official in Islamabad.
Two on Friday night both Afghan nationals managed and fled from Landikotal lock up. According to police sources the arrested persons escaped through an exhaust fan hole in the room in the lock-up. District Police Officer of Khyber doctor Muhammad Iqbal constituted a search and investigation team to probe the matter.
Inspector Abid Afridi led the team and started the search to rearrest the lock-up breakers. He told the media that they would complete the investigation within a week and those who commit the crime would be brought to justice.
However, no one was yet made responsible for the official ignorance that made it possible for the two to flee from the lockup situated inside the Landikotal administration compound.
This scribe made several phone calls to Landikotal jail superintendent Akhtar Shah but he failed to attend phone calls and did not respond to the text messages.
Arms seized: Torkham authorities foiled a bid to smuggle a huge quantity of arms from Afghanistan, officials said.
Pakistan customs official Mir Zaman told this scribe by phone that a truck that had crossed the border was searched and a huge quantity of foreign made12-bore guns were from the hidden cavities of the truck. He said the worth of the seized arms is around rupees 5 to 6 million in the open market.
The official said the empty truck(KBL-3865) was also taken into their custody and started an investigation.
