QUETTA: Three suspected militants were detained and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized during raids conducted in Quetta and Dalbandin on Wednesday.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti told a press conference that Frontier Corps personnel acting on intelligence reports raided a terrorist hideout at Faisal Colony in Dalbandin. During the raid three suspects, said to have been involved in terrorist activities, were arrested and a large quantity of arms and ammunition was seized.

Mr Bugti said that FC personnel also carried out a raid in New Kahan area on the outskirts of Quetta on Tuesday night and recovered arms and ammunition buried in a house.

No one was in the house at the time of raid.

The minister said that arms and ammunition seized during the two raids included 77 anti-personnel mines, nine anti-tank mines, 58 hand-grenades, four missiles, 120 mortar shells, 80kg of explosive substance, 14 Kalashnikovs, 11 sub-machineguns and thousands of bullets.

The weapons were to be used in acts of terrorism in Quetta and Dalbandin on the Independence Day but security arrangements put in place did not provide terrorists a chance to use them, he said.

“Our security forces are capable of foiling any terrorist conspiracy,” he said, adding that the government was trying to restore peace and order in Balochistan.

He said neither any military operation had been launched in any area of the province nor had the government any plan to do so. But, he added, security forces had carried out `minor operations’ in some areas on intelligence about the presence of suspected terrorists there.

Mr Bugti said the presence of Afghan refugees in Balochistan posed a threat to law and order in the province and called for their early repatriation.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014