GILGIT, June 27: The district administration of Diamer has requisitioned troops for raiding hideouts of suspected terrorists who are believed to have killed 11 foreign climbers on June 22.

Officials said the culprits had been identified. They belong to Diamer, Kohistan and Mansehra.

“We will arrest them soon and the grand jirga has been told to cooperate with the government,” senior administration and police officials said.

They said personnel of Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts had been camped in schools and other places and they would go into action soon after receiving a green signal.

Earlier, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Secretary Munir Ahmed Badini and Inspector General of Police Usman Zakria said at a press conference that the culprits had been identified and they would be arrested soon.

“The culprits are within the territorial jurisdiction of Diamer and we will arrest them,” they said.

“We have traced the attackers with the help of intelligence agencies, Pakistan Army and Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts.”

They said the grand jirga had been given names of the suspected assailants and expressed the hope that it would help the administration in arresting them.

They said the incident had deeper links, but did not name the organisation which the culprits belonged to.

JIRGA: A leader of the grand jirga criticised the government and said: “They want us to arrest the suspects, but it is not our job”.

A former speaker of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly, Malik Mohammad Miskeen, who heads the jirga, told Dawn by phone that it was the duty of the government to arrest the killers of foreign climbers. The jirga would fully cooperate with the government.

Mr Miskeen said the jirga strongly condemned the attack on foreign climbers and wanted the government to take the incident seriously.

“I wish the government arrests the real culprits, but its track record is not encouraging. It is looking for scapegoats,” he said.

He said foreign money had flooded the region and local agents were easily found.

He regretted that the incident had earned a bad name for Pakistan across the globe.