Illegal weapons seized from Pak madrassa

KARACHI - A huge quantity of heavy weapons, including explosive materials, have been recovered from a madrassa (religious seminary) in Pakistan in raids jointly conducted by the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) and Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) of the country.

Raiding Madrassa-e-Arabia Faizanul Quran and a house near Sindhi Hotel in Liaquatabad in a joint operation, AVCC and CPLC recovered a large quantity of illegal weapons, the Daily Times quoted Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Investigation) Iftikhar Hussain Tarar, as saying in a press conference at the AVCC office.

Three accused culprits were also arrested, who were identified as Shafiqullah, son of Shafiullah, and brothers Noman and Faizan, sons of Mohammad Yaseen, while two accused, identified as Imran Yaseen and Amanullah managed to escape, the DIG added.

The police recovered a light machine gun, a rocket launcher, one 7mm rifle, one submachine gun, a 12-bore repeater, one .44-bore rifle, one 30-bore pistol, a 9mm pistol, 1,000 bullets, 5 boxes of explosive materials, 8 boxes of wires, religious literature, three motorcycles and a car, Tarar claimed.

He remarked that though the initial interrogation had not found any affiliation of the arrested trio with any political or militant groups, the seized arms cache reflected that they might be associated with a terrorist group.

Tarar informed that the suspects were involved in the kidnapping of Hanif Memon on August 27, who was released on September1 after the kidnappers got a ransom amount of around 750,000 rupees. (ANI)