QUETTA, June 26: The Frontier Corps and police claimed on Tuesday to have thwarted major bomb attacks on important places and installations in Quetta by arresting two men involved in terrorist acts and seizing a huge quantity of explosives.

“Grenades, rockets, RPG-7s, time devices and homemade bombs were seized,” Balochistan FC’s Sector Commander Brig Abdul Rashid said at a press conference. DIG (operations) Hamid Shakeel was also present.

“In a joint operation, FC and police arrested two suspects, including a mastermind of subversive activities,” the FC official said.

He said the arrested men had confessed to their involvement in a bomb attack on the chief minister at Sariab railway crossing and a recent car bomb attack on FC vehicles near Almo Chowk that claimed five lives, including the force’s personnel.

He said an FC contingent intercepted an Alto car at Imdad Chowk on Zarghoon Road during patrol on Monday night and seized 20kg of explosives and two remote-controlled, locally made bombs from the vehicle.

The driver of the car, Danish of Mand area of Ketch district, was arrested.

During interrogation, Danish gave information about his accomplice, Ghulam Yasin, who was arrested from a house in Sariab Mills. He had come to Quetta five years ago and stayed in Burma Hotel.

“They are involved in bomb blasts, attacks on railway tracks and other places in Quetta,” Brig Rashid said.

He said the mastermind of the subversive activities was Murad who was in Dasht area. He was a commander of banned Balochistan Republican Army (BRA) and worked on the instructions of Nawabzada Brahamdagh Bugti, the official alleged.

He said the two men had confessed that they had been paid Rs1 million for carrying out the car bomb explosion at Almo Chowk. The blast was carried out with the help of women, he said. They told investigators that they had been promised Rs1.5 million for blowing up other important places, including FC and army installations.

The official said the arrested men had also killed three barbers and carried out acts of sabotage in Mand and Turbat.

He said 2,500kg of explosives which could be used for making 250 homemade bombs, two RPG-7 rockets, detonators, five hand-grenades, time devices and transmitters had been seized.