QUETTA, July 14: Security forces on Saturday arrested 16 people from the Lanjo Seghari area in an operation along the Balochistan-Sindh border and seized a large quantity of illegal arms and ammunition.

Officials said that army personnel assisted police in the pre-dawn raid.

They said that all of the arrested people were wanted by police in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab in various cases, including terrorism, killing of army personnel, kidnapping of government officials and others for ransom.

“They are involved in attacking an army vehicle, killing a soldier and injuring two others, in March,” DPO Najamuddin Tareen told Dawn. He said that they were also involved in killing 18 Qalandrani tribesmen.

The arms cache included two rocket launchers, six sub-machine guns, a 12.7mm gun, three .303-bore guns, two 12-bore shotguns, 12 rockets, 1,575 mortar shells, several thousand rounds of different calibre and 50 kilogrammes of high explosives. Those arrested were identified as Ali Bagh Chakrani, Nabi Bakhsh Chakrani, Ghulam Hussain Chakrani, Kaliqo Chakrani, Piyra Chakrani, Washo Chakrani, Sher Ahmed Chakrani, Shah Nawaz Chakrani, Habibullah Chakrani, Lal Mohammad Chakrani, ‘commander’ Mir Jan Chakrani, Mewa Khan Chakrani, Wadera Durani Chakrani, Baga Chakrani, Ghulam Hussain Chakrani, Ali Doost Chakrani, and Maluk Chakrani. All of them have been handed over to authorities concerned for interrogation.

Meanwhile, security forces also raided the Ghori Nullah area near Sui and recovered eight kilogrammes of high explosives and hundreds of rounds of SMG and G-3 rifles. No arrest was reported.