Nato weapons recovered from house in Karachi's Azizabad, terror bid thwarted

Bulletproof jackets and helmets were also recovered during the raid by police

KARACHI: A huge cache of Nato weapons and ammunition were recovered by police on Wednesday during a raid on an empty house in the Azizabad area of the metropolis.

Police reportedly seized a large number of weapons including anti-aircraft guns, sub-machine guns, light machine guns, rifles and rocket launchers hidden in the water tank of the empty house.

Bulletproof jackets and helmets were also recovered during the raid by police, Media reported.

The raid was conducted after the police was tipped off by a political worker already in police custody.

All the recovered weapons were shifted to the office of Sindh Inspector General (IG) AD Khawaja. The final count of the recovered weapons has yet to be made public.

During his press conference, the Sindh IG said: “These weapons were stocked to conduct terrorist activity in Karachi during Muharam.”

When asked who the weapons belong to, the IG responded by saying: “When I have said it belongs to a political party and I have mentioned Nine Zero, and that the house was located in Azizabad, after that is there anything left to add?"

During his press conference, the Sindh IG informed the media that forensic tests will be conducted to determine whether the weapons have been used in the past to conduct terrorist activities in the metropolis.

He also told that the police are still looking into how long the house has been vacant and who it belongs to.

In March, a large cache of ammunition was recovered by Rangers during a raid at MQM headquarters, Nine Zero. According to Rangers spokesperson Colonel Tahir, the ammunition stolen from Nato containers was also seized during the search operation.

A number of party workers, including member of MQM's Rabita Committee Amir Khan, were detained during the raid.