KARACHI, Jan 20: Eleven Russian-made grenades were seized on Tuesday, lying on the side of a storm-water drain in North Nazimabad, while over 500 kilograms of chemicals, which were to be used for making bombs, were recovered in Samanabad, the police said.

"We went to the area, on a tip-off, near Pahar Ganj and found a shopping bag containing the grenades," North Nazimabad Town Police Officer Sultan Khuwaja told Dawn.

He said the explosive experts, after examining the grenades, had reached a conclusion that the grenades were Russian-made, and added that a search operation had been launched in the locality some days back to arrest terrorists, some of whom, fearing arrest, might have thrown the grenades out.

He said the operation to arrest the suspected militants was continuing and hoped the police would net them in. The sources said that the Russian-made grenades had earlier been recovered from the people belonging to some jihadi outfits and the recovered grenades too possibly belonged to such elements.

Sindh chief minister's adviser on Home affairs Aftab Shaikh said that the police had tightened the noose around the terrorists. Referring to the recovery of huge cache of explosives from an abandoned Mehmoodabad house, he said criminals had been forced to abandon their weapons and ammunitions to avoid raids and arrests, as they were feeling insecure.

Meanwhile, the Samanabad police raided a house in Shafiq Colony on a tip-off and recovered 500 kilograms of Calcium-Ammonium-Nitrate and 32 kilograms of Vaseline.

Explosive experts, after examining the chemicals, said that by mixing chemicals with Vaseline, a certain level of heat would convert the substance into explosive, which could be used to make bombs.

Samanabad SHO Ghulam Farid Khuwaja said that the police seized the explosive material from a house No 582 in Shafiq Colony. The house was owned by a widow, who rented it out to one Ikramullah, he said, adding that police were looking for Ikram as he had disappeared.

When asked about the possibility of Ikram having connection with any extremist organization, Mr Farid said: "We came to know that he is a bearded man, but we are not sure about his affiliation. We are trying to locate him and gathering information about him."