July 24, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1424

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QUETTA, July 23: Police seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, in Killi Turkman in the Dasht area of the Mastung district on Wednesday and arrested a man.

“It is the biggest seizure of heavy arms and ammunition in the country,” the inspector-general of police, Balochistan, Dr Shoaib Suddle, said at a press conference here.

The police seized 195 Russian-made RPG-7 rockets, three 75mm recoil-less guns, two 20mm guns, three 12.7mm anti-aircraft guns and thousands of rounds.

They also seized five bags of hashish, weighing 150kg.

A case has been registered by the crime investigation department police.

The weapons, mostly of Russian origin, were dumped underground in the house of the accused, Mir Hazar Kurd, the IG said and added that a CID team had conducted the raid in the early hours of Wednesday on a tip-off.

He said the arms and ammunition had been smuggled from Afghanistan for terrorist activities. He said that during initial investigation some clues were found about the cache.

Earlier, Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf and Balochistan Assembly Deputy Speaker Mohammad Aslam Bhootani inspected the seized arms and ammunition at the provincial police officer’s office. They were briefed about the raid.

Talking to newsmen, the chief minister said the police had foiled a conspiracy to destabilize the country and the province by seizing the weapons.

Replying to a question about the probability of the use of such weapons in sectarian attacks, he said the objective of the terrorists was to target installations like bridges.

He said the weapons had been dumped by an organized group that wanted to use them for subversive acts to affect the life in the country.

He said involvement of foreign hands in supplying such modern weapons could not be ruled out.

Jam Yousaf conceded that terrorists felt that Balochistan was a haven for them but declared that his government would frustrate the designs of the conspirators and protect the lives of the citizens.

Asked if such terrorist acts might pave the way for governor’s rule in the province, he said that in that case the whole country would face a similar situation.

He said the provincial government would announce reward to the officials involved in the raid.AFP adds: The IG said during the press conference that the raid was a part of the investigation into the July 4 attack on a mosque in the provincial capital.