KOHAT, April 10: Police seized a huge cache of arms being smuggled from the gun-manufacturing town of Darra Adamkhel in the frontier region of Kohat to Teerah in the Orakzai Agency after an encounter with smugglers in the mountains of Ghamkol Pir on late Sunday night.

The arms were being smuggled through Kohat apparently for terrorist activities in Hangu which is still tense after the Feb 9 suicide bomb blast and sectarian violence which claimed 46 lives.

The ASP, Kareem Khan, told newsmen at a press conference on Monday that on the smugglers opened fire when they were asked by police to stop for a search.

When the police party retaliated, the smugglers escaped leaving the arms and ammunition behind.

The weapons seized included 82 mortar bombs, 21 grenade launchers and a mortar gun.

Officials of the Janglekhel police station said that a case under sections 324/353 PPC and under section 5 explosives act had been registered against the accused.