KARACHI, May 5 Police on Wednesday claimed to have seized six AK-47 assault rifles, three pistols and ammunition allegedly being smuggled in by a trailer-truck of the National Logistic Cell (NLC). The truck was returning from Peshawar after delivering a consignment there and was due to hand over the arms to a suspect in a Keamari locality.

The incident shocked both the police high-ups and investigators, who saw it the first such consignment found in an NLC vehicle — the country's largest transportation and logistics organisation operating under the ministry of defence.

“Acting on a tip-off, we intercepted the NLC trailer near gate 15 of the KPT [Karachi Port Trust],” said SHO of the Jackson police station Inspector Sohail Akhtar.

“It did not take us much time to find the six AK-47 rifles with their 231 magazines and nearly 3,000 bullets. Three TT pistols with 60 bullets have also been recovered from the trailer.”

The police official said that the trailer was returning from the outskirts of Peshawar after offloading a trade consignment in the area. The driver of the vehicle, Sher Mohammad, and his assistant, Muhammad Aslam, had been arrested.

“The police later raided a place in Keamari and arrested a man named Tariq Zaman, who was supposed to receive the illegal arms and ammunition consignment,” he added.

The Jackson police station later registered a case (428/2010) under Sections 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, 13-D of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance for illegal arms possession and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the three arrested persons along with another man, Shahid, the sender of the consignment, who has been declared at large in the FIR.

The police investigators said they believed it was too early to reveal any information about the alleged consignor and consignee of the illegal arms who had managed to breach all safety protocols and loaded their consignment into the NLC truck.

“In this case we only moved on intelligence reports,” said SSP Naeem Sheikh of the Keamari Town police.

“Such intelligence sharing is often found accurate and at this point, we cannot share details of our findings as investigations are in early stages,” the police officer added.

However, he insisted that the transportation of arms in the NLC trailer was purely an act of individuals and as an organisation the NLC had nothing to do with the whole episode.

The police officer did not share further information which could have suggested how the suspects managed to almost execute their job and transported the arms from Peshawar to Karachi.

The question also remained unanswered before police authorities who said they had no mechanism and technology to check such illegal shipments.

“Our operations are mostly based on intelligence gatherings, in which we manage to get success to a large extent,” said the capital city police officer (CCPO) Waseem Ahmed.

“Otherwise, we do not have any other source or technology that may help scan vehicles coming into Karachi through different entry points of the city. A plan to install scanners may help on these lines to a great extent.”

He said the use of NLC vehicle for illegal arms shipment was a rare incident in the recent years and the whole trade could only be checked through technological support and resources.