KARACHI: Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, on Saturday claimed to have seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition in Landhi, dumped by the “militant wing of a political party”, said a statement.

Though the statement did not carry the name of the political party behind the dumping of the arms, the paramilitary force said that with the seizure of the arms it had “averted a major terrorist activity in the city”.

“A volunteer law-abiding citizen belonging to a political party, who denounces terrorism, guided Pakistan Rangers to recover the arms,” said the statement.

“According to details, Pakistan Rangers Sindh conducted a surgical action in Al-Burq Gymkhana, Landhi, and recovered a huge weapons cache. The weapons and ammo was to be used to carry out sporadic target killings and other sabotage activities in the city from a militant wing of a political party.”

The seized arms included a 12.7 gun with mound, a rocket-propelled grenades launcher, a 7mm rifle, an 8mm rifle, a pump action 12 bore rifle, a revolver, 40 Avan bombs, 2,730 rounds of light-machine gun and 640 rounds of sub-machine gun, added the statement.

Meanwhile, a suspected gangster was killed in an encounter with the paramilitary force in Lyari. The Rangers statement said an intelligence-driven targeted raid was conducted on reports of Lyari gangsters involved in the Sept 2 murder in Bihar Colony.

“When the Rangers troops were approaching the hideout, terrorists opened fire and tried to escape,” said the statement. “In the ensuing exchange of fire a terrorist was killed while four others were arrested.”

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2015

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