KARACHI: Police on Sunday detained three people in connection with the huge quantity of ‘old and rusted’ arms that were recovered from beneath the ground floor of a British-era building belonging to a trust in the old city area of Lea Market on Friday, officials said.

The police operation, launched on Friday night, led to the recovery of 63 revolvers, 183 sten guns, 13 anti-aircraft guns, six mausers and pieces of different sophisticated weapons.

Napier SHO Zafar Iqbal said that an FIR was lodged under relevant sections of the Sindh Arms Act-2013 and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on behalf of the state through Super Market SHO Mohammed Riaz.

The complainant told the police that he received information about presence of sophisticated weapons inside an old building belonging to a trust.

Investigators have detained three persons identified as Mohammed Saleem, Mohammed Shafiq and Faizan. They all expressed their ignorance about the weapons hidden on the ground floor of the building located on Siddiq Wahab Road.

183 sten guns, 13 anti-aircraft guns, other weapons and their pieces were recovered

According to the FIR, the arms were hidden under the ground floor spread over 30 to 35 feet and digging was carried out up to three- to three-and-a-half feet deep. The place of the incident was at a distance of around 150 yards away from the Napier police station.

Khawaja Ajmer Nagri DSP Moin, who supervised the operation, told the media on Sunday that the operation had been completed.

He said the recovered arms had been taken to a safe place temporarily as Sunday was holiday. “A forensic analysis of the recovered weapons will be carried out,” he said.

City SSP Sarfraz Nawaz Shaikh had stated that the investigators would approach army experts for ascertaining the origins of the weapons.

Another official Chaudhry Anwar told Dawn that Mohammed Saleem had got the 100-year-old building belonging to the trust on pagri around 40 years ago. He sold the building to Mohammed Shafiq about four years ago. Subsequently, Shafiq gave the building on rent to Faizan, who had established a warehouse in the building for keeping kitchen utensils.

The investigating officer said that all recovered weapons were old and rusted. “These are basically pieces of different weapons.”

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2022