KARACHI, April 10: Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), on Saturday, foiled an attempt to carry out possible large scale destruction in the city and recovered highly sophisticated weapons, including a 82-MM mortar, from the secret basement of a house located in Gadap.
Besides, 82-MM mortar, other lethal weaponry recovered from the house were PRG-7RL rocket launcher, 107-MM free flight rocket, 18 pieces of 82-MM mortar bombs and ammunition.
Addressing a press conference at Rangers Headquarters on Saturday, Col Zafar Iqbal said that a patriotic Karachiite tipped the Rangers recently about the movement of some suspects in an under-construction house in Ahsanabad, Gadap Town.
On receipt of this information, he said, the Ranger's Field Security Wing personnel immediately raided the spotted house. During search, they found a basement where the weaponry had been kept in hiding.
Col Zafar described the weapons as highly lethal and during investigation it was revealed that these arms were concealed by an extremist organization to use it at an appropriate time for meeting their nefarious designs.
He said that no arrest had been made so far in this regard, but, investigation was in progress regarding the transportation of these arms and the accused involved.
Col Zafar said that the name of the extremist organization, involved in the smuggling of these lethal arms, could not be disclosed at this time as it would affect the ongoing investigation.However, he disclosed that most of the arms were Russian made.
For the first time in Karachi, he said, the 82-MM mortar gun had been seized by a security agency. He said that the gun having a range of over five kilometres could hit any target within that range.
He said that there could be a possibility that these weapons had been brought from Waziristan. When asked as to how the gun was smuggled to Karachi while so many agencies were on a high alert, he pointed out that such weapons could be brought in pieces through various routes and made operational after assembling.
Replying to another question, Col Zafar said that there had been similarity in the attacks on the Ranger's mobile in Baluch Colony and police station in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. He was of the view that both the forces were targeted because the law enforcing agencies were effectively pursuing terrorists and had been foiling their attempts in smuggling of arms.-APP
Police recovery
KARACHI, April 10: Police raided an under-construction house on Saturday in sector 7-A, North Karachi, and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.
A police spokesman said that the police, acting on a tip-off, recovered 15 home-made grenades, six timers, six timer-like clocks, a pistol and four bags containing seven kilograms of explosive material from the house. The police believed the material was improvised explosive and sent it to laboratory for tests.
However, no arrests were made during the raid, he added.
