KOHAT, Oct 20: Police seized a big cache of arms and ammunition which was being smuggled in a truck to down country from Darra Adamkhel and arrested two smugglers here on Thursday.

According to Riaz Shaheed police station officials, the smugglers disclosed during interrogation that they had been carrying weapons to Karachi via Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for several years.

They said that the truck (GLT-3053) had crossed into Kohat district from the famous gun-manufacturing tribal area of Darra Adamkhel when on a search at the toll plaza on Indus Highway the police found heavy quantity of automatic arms and spare parts, which were hidden it its secret spaces. The seizure included 11 Kalashnikovs, 52 pistols, 5,207 cartridges, 74 chargers and dozens of rifles, butts and other spare parts used in the reassembling of different new and repair of old guns.

The police said that two smugglers identified as Mohammad Raza and Allah Bux, belonging to Lakki Marwat district, had been arrested. They said that the weapons were recovered from the truck following a tip-off. The police have started further investigation after registering a case against the two alleged smugglers.

Meanwhile, the cantonment police arrested an auto thief in a raid here at Dhoda town and recovered a motorcycle from him on Thursday.

The police was informed that a motorcycle (KT-3962) had been lifted from the Railways colony. The police team later arrested the alleged thief, identified as Shakir, in Dhoda village and recovered the motorcycle. According to police, Shakir had also changed the number of the motorcycle.

TREE PLANTATION:

The Hungarian MOL oil and gas exploration company has kicked off a tree plantation campaign from Lachi teshsil of Kohat to make the barren rural land green for a healthy environment.

The MOL in cooperation with Sarhad Rural Support Programme would constitute teams of volunteers to make the campaign a success, the organisers said. The function to start the movement was attended by former provincial minister Iftikharuddin Khattak and officials of the MOL and SRSP.