KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have found another cache of arms dumped in a graveyard, this time in the Sakhhi Hasan area, which came as the seventh such seizure within a year.

Earlier, too, law enforcement personnel had found illegal weapons and ammunitions buried in graveyards, schools, playgrounds and even in a mosque after they had geared up actions under the Karachi operation, leaving few options for criminals and militant wings to hide their stocks, officials said.

The Shahrah-i-Noor Jahan police were approached by area people when they found suspicious-looking bags lying beside a grave in the Sakhhi Hasan graveyard while they were burying a body nearby. The police further dug up the grave and found the bags carrying guns and bullets, which they believed were buried there recently as the weapons were in good condition.

“The grave where these bags were half-buried was covered with garbage to make it look like an old one,” said Inspector Imran Zaidi, the SHO of the Shahrah-i-Noor Jahan police station. “There were two SMGs [sub-machine guns], five other rifles and more than 200 bullets which we found wrapped in separate bags. We have seized all the arms and ammunitions to send them for a forensic examination. Only after that we would arrive at any conclusion about their use in any criminal activity before they were buried there.”

The recovery of arms from the Sakhi Hasan graveyard is nothing new in recent months as both the police and Rangers in the past few months have spotted such hideouts for illegal arms mainly on leads given by arrested suspects during investigation.

A few months ago, the police and Rangers raided a graveyard near the Khajji Ground in Rizvia Society on a lead from an arrested suspect. After hours of search and digging, the law enforcement personnel recovered two AK-47 assault rifles, so-called awan bombs and ammunition dumped in the facility over a period by criminals when they found the noose tightening around them under the ongoing Karachi operation.

Before that in Sherpao Colony’s graveyard, in Landhi, the Rangers conducted a similar operation and discovered eight SMGs, hand-grenades and pistols from a grave. An operation was also conducted on findings during investigations from one of the arrested suspects. The officials also confirmed the recovery of arms dumped in the courtyard of a government school in New Karachi and a mosque in Orangi Town. The police said the phenomena was not going to end anytime soon and only the people could help in finding such sites being used for dumping of illegal arms.

“Take the example of today’s recovery [Sakhi Hasan graveyard],” said Karachi police chief Mushtaq Maher. “They were people and administration of that graveyard who approached the police after finding the suspicious grave and bags. We need similar cooperation from the people as we know that criminals and terrorists are finding it hard to keep their arms and ammunitions with them. So they are using public places and many such recoveries are expected in the future as well.”

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2016