RAWALPINDI, July 2: The police on Tuesday arrested 12 suspected terrorists who were allegedly planning attack on worship places in Rawalpindi and seized a huge quantity of weapons.

This was stated by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Syed Murvat Shah at a press conference held at his office on Tuesday afternoon.

The weapons seized by the police included nine kalashnikoves, eight 222 riffles, one 8mm rifle, four grenades, three detonators, one light machine gun, one rocket launcher, 10 rocket launcher shells, 2200 cartridges, including 560 bullets of LMG, and 15 boosters. The SSP suspected that the arrested people belonged to Sipah-i-Sihaba. Answering a question, he said it was yet to be ascertained whether they had any link with Al Qaeda. He claimed that an attempt of a large-scale terrorist attack had been averted by the police action, however, he did not specify the places or persons the “terrorists” wanted to target.

The SSP said raids were still underway to arrest other members of the group, who managed to escape from the scene during a police crackdown on Tuesday morning.

He said different raiding parties had been formed after a tip-off was received that some “terrorists” were planning attacks in Rawalpindi.

The police parties, led by DSP Sardar Maqsood, raided different hideouts of the alleged culprits in Dhoke Najoo and other areas to make the arrests, the SSP said.

The weapons seized by the police had been dumped at different Kutcha Abadis situated at Pirwadhai and other areas.

To another question, the SSP said police were very close to completing investigations in Shah-i-Najf case.