PESGHAWAR, Nov 5 Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested 60 suspected persons including 15 Afghan nationals, who were involved in different kinds of crime.

An official said that keeping in view the sabotage activities in surrounding districts the city police had also further beefed up the security, where all the station house officers and deputy superintendents of police were directed to ensure checking of suspected people in their respective jurisdictions.

The officials said firing rockets at Peshawar International Airport and residence of a military official in cantonment area had put the concerned official in difficulty as the locations from where the rockets were fired could not be identified so far.

Referring to the kidnapping cases the official said police had very limited number of personnel who could not cover the entire area including link roads and streets. “That is why kidnappers are exploiting the situation,” he added.

He said police were regularly patrolling different key routes, mainly in the limits of Hayatabad police station, to keep vigilance on movement of the suspected vehicles and control the increasing incidents of abduction.

A police spokesman, when contacted, told Dawn that police had conducted raids at hideouts of anti-social elements in different areas and also arrested 15 proclaimed offenders who were wanted in kidnapping, murder and robbery cases.About the Afghan refugees, he said they had failed to show any valid documents to police and their stay in Pakistan was illegal. He said weapons were also recovered from their possession.

He said police had also established posts at Grand Trunk Road, Ring Road, Warsak Road and some in parts of Peshawar Cantonment.

Our Correspondent from Charsadda adds

Police launched a crackdown against illegal Afghans and detained at least 17 clerics and prayer leaders from various localities of Charsadda district and sent them to jail, sources said on Wednesday.

The Afghans, who worked as prayer leaders and also taught Quran to children in mosques, were held under the Foreigners Act. They possessed no legal documents to justify their stay in the country, officials said.