GILGIT: The Skardu police and other law enforcement agencies recovered a huge cache of heavy weapons and explosives during a joint raid on a house on Sunday, and arrested the owner.

An official of Skardu police told Dawn on Monday on condition of anonymity that on a tip-off, the law-enforcement agencies and police led by Skardu SSP Mirza Hasan raided a house of a ‘scrap dealer’ in Skardu city on Sunday evening.

During the raid a large number of mortars, mortar shells, rocket launchers, and other explosives were recovered from the house owned by Nasir Khan, a resident of Mohmand Agency of Fata.

The weapons and explosives were hidden in a washroom of the house.

Police arrested the accused and registered an FIR against five other persons, also scrap dealers. They were named Noor Khan, Shahid Khan, Zakir Khan, and two others whose names could not identified. All the accused are residents of various areas of KP.

The police on Monday obtained a three-day physical remand of the arrested person from a local court, and shifted him to an unknown location for further investigation.

The raid was made after a blast occurred at a scrap shop in Bhutto Bazaar in Skardu, a few days ago, injuring two people. The injured people were also scrap dealers identified as Hasamuddin of Kohistan and Noor Ali of Mohmand Agency.

A police official told Dawn that investigation was underway as to from where the explosives and heavy arms were shifted to Skardu.

He said usually explosive devices were found in abandoned areas in Baltistan division, which straddle the Line of Control with India.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017