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KARACHI: A huge cache of Nato weapons and ammunition was recovered by police on Wednesday during a raid on an empty house in the Azizabad area of the metropolis.
Police reportedly seized a large number of weapons including anti-aircraft guns, SMGs, LMGs, sniper rifles,hand grenades and rocket launchers hidden in the water tank of the empty house.
Bulletproof jackets and helmets were also recovered during the raid by police, DawnNews reported.
The raid was conducted after the police was tipped off by a political worker already in police custody.
Karachi police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar termed it the "biggest recovery of arms and ammunition in the history of Karachi".
“In light of disclosures made by a detained suspect, big-wigs of a political party provided help in procuring these arms and ammunition,” said the AIG Karachi, without naming the party and its leaders.
The city police chief claimed that these arms were supposed to be used by the elements residing in London particularly with cooperation of RAW (Indian intelligence agency) for terror activities in the metropolis but it was foiled through timely action by security institutions.
“These weapons were hidden for terror acts to be perpetrated by terrorists of a political party based in South Africa,” said the AIG Karachi.
All the recovered weapons were shifted to the office of Sindh Inspector General.
According to the press release issued by Sindh Police, recovered weapons included 11 anti-aircraft guns, 17 grenade launchers, 39 LMGs, 9 RPG-7, 82 SMGs, 11 7-MM, one M-16, 32 China rifles 7.62, 10 G-3, 5 sniper rifles, 2 repeaters, 9 short SMGs and 245 magazines of SMGs and G-3.
The police also claimed seizing 200 hand grenades, 2000 rifle grenades, 140 bullet-proof jackets and huge quantity of ammunition.
During his press conference, the Sindh AIG informed the media that forensic tests will be conducted to determine whether the weapons have been used in the past to conduct terrorist activities in the metropolis.
He also told that the police are still looking into how long the house has been vacant and who it belongs to.
Earlier in March, a large cache of ammunition was recovered by Rangers during a raid at MQM headquarters, Nine Zero. According to Rangers spokesperson Colonel Tahir, the ammunition stolen from Nato containers was also seized during the search operation.
A number of party workers, including member of MQM's Rabita Committee Amir Khan, were detained during the raid. Huge cache of arms seized near Nine Zero in Azizabad ‘London elements with cooperation of RAW planning killings through network of political party based in South Africa’
Comments (54) Closed
Highly alarming! If this is one voluntary tip-off, what would be the extent of actual kept in hold?
"the police was tipped off by a political worker who was already in the custody of police".
Which one?
They are all AK-47s. Not NATO standard issue.
Wonder how many more of such weapons cache may be hiding in the city ready to maim and kill innocent citizens. It must have taken a long long time to accumulate so much weapon. But a big question needs to be asked, where was police and intelligence agency for past many years and failing to stop accumulation of so much illegal weapon by criminals in the city?
First of all it raises a lot of questions. These weapons would have come from somewhere. It must have passed through various check points. Why they were not caught at that time? Secondly is it MQM's responsibility to monitor each and every house in Azizabad-Karachi? Does that mean any crime happening near Bilawal house is PPP's responsibility? Please stop maligning MQM as terrorism has no affiliation with any political party.
The first thing you preserve evidence in any forensic investigation, especially where items which could have been used to commit a crime is to handle the items with care, wearing gloves not to disturb any finger prints, DNA deposits and other clues.
In the picture above, a Police man is shown handling a gun, without any gloves! This contaminates any residues of DNA and smudges any traces of finger prints that were there, to link to any criminals and whoever handled it last. Such bad practices don't help.
A narration hard to believe.They were stored to be used in Muharram for terrorism.They were recovered from empty (vacant) house.They were found in Azizabad.They belong to a political party and no need to mention the name as it can be understood by all.No Karachites will believe this .
Weldone security forces. Special investigation should be conducted to reach the arm suppliers. It's alarming.
Pakistan need to take this matter with NATO and US. They are the source of terror in Pakistan
@M.Jamal It is almost implied.... A political party,,, with a base in Azizabad section of Karachi....
By eliminating PPP, PML-N, and PTI, there aren't took many parties left to be implicated, except, perhaps one or two!
Wow ! Any surprise?
@Sab Se Pehle Pakistan .... wow! That's the height of denial. I'm appalled !!
@M.Jamal ..Dear I'm a Karachitte and I do Believe it. I also believe there are many more such weapon caches hidden in the city.
well first of salute to all responsible authorities for pathetic control over such tramsport of arms....
By this performance of our establishment driven agenda; soon MQM will be blamed with proofs found in underground cache for world war 2 atomic explosion on Japan. Just mind boggling and has gone way too far in its absurdity and ineptitude.
Okay this is a huge cache of weapons. We all know that MQM has or atleast had a militant wing backed by RAW and many such recoveries have been made by Rangers in past. But look at all these weapons they are Darra made AK47s, there is not a single M4 M16 derivative in picture. How on earth can they be NATO weapons, they don't use such junk. Our LEAs should be more careful in thier statment, exaggerating some times shadows all the good work.
Why these weapons were not recovered during the intense operation and continuous search of houses. Now PSP has failed to take confidence of people then another drama has been staged of weapons from an empty house.
Congratulations to Karachi police. Many lives saved.
Looking at the amount of arms and ammunition, honestly speaking, what is the difference between the so called political party and the likes of TTP? Is that what our "politics" have come to?
If you read between the lines, by process of elimination can only arrive at the name of most likely, just one party with strong presence in that part of Karachi. The journalist doesn't need to through in names or spell everything out for us.
I just returned from Karachi back to the US and I am thankful there was no major event that took place during my presence. Pakistan really needs to resolve it issues fast and unite so it can compete with all the nations of the world. If Pakistan's growth does not occur soon it will be very harmful to the people of Pakistan. The Pakistani people have to voice their opinions loudly so that the Government can help it grow. Good Luck Pakistan!
Azizabad locality has 120 Sq yds houses and normally they have water tank capacity of maximum 2000 gallons roughly 8 cu meter or say 280 cu ft (8'x6'x6') and really all ammunition were hidden in underground water tank.These are all flimsy narration as the quantity of the discovered ammunition as appearing in photos can't fit in a underground water tank.Something is wrong.SHC can take suo moto action and check the size of the water tank as it is reported that the police required 4 trucks to transfer the ammunition and listen to the recorded interview of the security officials in Karachi.
TTP and other religious banned organizations have been fighting with our forces but such a huge amount of weapons are not recovered from them. May we ask why our agencies have ot searched their houses and what our agencies have been doing except running after MQM and Urdu Speaking people in Karachi.
This is stunning. Thank Rangers!
One must wonder what our police and intelligence was doing when arms in such quantities and sophistication was being brought in, transported and stored.
As per Samma TV they were Chinese make. How come NATO weapon are Chinese make. It make no sense. Also the user may not rely on Chinese weapon due to quality.
This is one big accomplishment of Karachi Police. Now I am sure police can easily find out the owner of the house and its habit ant in the past. This will be not that difficult for the police to find out the owner of this house and how long this house has been vacant. It will be tricky to find when this ammunition was stored in the house.
This is a joke, right? From when NATO/U.S.A started using Russian made AK-47s?
These are only used by Talibans. no one else.
@Sab Se Pehle Pakistan Please accept the facts that MQM has been involved in many crimes and all leaders must have been aware of the party activities including those breaking off from London
I failed to understand why Zulfiqar Mirza is still free after admitted to issuing 300,000 Weapons licenses to his supporter and PPP guys. Why is he not being questioned about that ? Another Politics by Rangers and police? MQM was not alone in Karachi killings, there were many others.
A through investigation must go on and nail down the main culprits and bring them ti justice.
Please not again the old story of stolen nato weapons. US state department had denied in the past of transporting weapons to nato forces via Karachi port. Time to dig where did tbeae weapons come from and to whom it belongs. Then deal with them with iron hands.
Which party is based in South Africa.
@M.Jamal Someone must have owned the house??? BTW our police still uses the defunct bomb detectors that even Iraqi's don't use anymore. Their creator is in jail on fraud charges related to these useless devices and our "competent" security forces are still using them. Even at Islamabad airport.
@Ahmed I think they are still doing what they have been doing for decades....incompetence knows no boundaries.
Big drama staged !
Pak army can use these arms, there is no money to buy such weapons so atleast with these caught army they can have some sophisticated weapons for free
If the alleged weaponry is to be used during Muharram, it is likely to be transported recently. How did such a huge cache was transported under the very noses of the agencies? or the authorities suggest that the pile was stocked in 2010 with a label "to be used in Muharram 2016?".
The damage this party has done to my country is unbelievable.
@Harmony-1© no, he was in the house.
@Hakim Afghani most of the stories are jokes, jokes which no ones getting.. lol
Punished everyone who is involved regardless of political affiliations. Karachi can't afford anymore bloodshed hope everyone will be safe during Muharram.
MQM written on it all over.
@M.Jamal Well said sir. But alas.
@Sab Se Pehle Pakistan If you still want to fool yourself, let it be like that...You can just compare Karachi and Lahore and conclude what MQM has done to it. PS I am urdu speaking,
Scary .. so many weapons and even dangerous situation
Total lie & it is a drama of the ruling party. You are in power & can not release the name of person & do not know this house belongs to whom. Govt has all the sources & expresing innocent, Un believable all of this. Just trying to blame a political party but dont have the courage who is that because it is a fabricated story & Nothing Else.
@M.Jamal i am from Karachi and i believe it.!
@M.Saeed Voluntary?? Are you kidding me? This is the Karachi Police - voluntary means that he gave up the info before they used the bigger sticks.
A better question would be, is this the end of it or are there more locations? How were so many arms transported? Who drove the cars? Who unloaded? Where were they loaded?
This should have been the Lea d news
@M.Jamal bhai jan seeing is believing and our LEA wants us to believe that all of this has been recovered from one UG water tank and dry too.
Must be a huge water tank of 120 sq. yards house.
@Smart Solution Intelligence agencies have always been there doing their Job without fail ( one of the major reasons why we have survived this long ), it is the Job of Police to ACT upon the information provided by Intelligence Agencies !!
@Arsal
Very interesting. Is the police unable to tell NATO weapons from AK47 and the like or is it trying to create the wrong impresssion deliberately?