QUETTA:
The Frontier Corps (FC) on Tuesday night seized a huge quantity of explosives, including remote control bombs and other material used in crafting explosives.
Commandant Ghaza band Scout, a wing of the Frontier Corps, Colonel Maqbool told reporters that the FC foiled an attempt to carry out a major terrorist attack in the provincial capital and recovered a huge quantity of explosive material as it raided a godown in Satellite Town area.
Colonel Maqbool said they captured over 100,000kg of explosive material that included potassium chloride, aluminum, 9 remote control bombs along with other complete material, 3 bundles of detonators, 78 bundles of circuit wires, 2,800kg sulfur, 15,000kg aluminum powder and 80 drums of acid. He said that FC troops raided the godown on the information provided by two persons who were arrested on Monday night along a truck as they were transferring a truckload of potassium chloride and aluminum.
Maqbool said at least 10 suspected militants had been arrested and handed over to the concerned authorities for interrogation. The same material was used in huge explosions carried out in different areas of Quetta that claimed over 200 casualties early this year, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2013.
Huge cache of explosives seized in Quetta – The Express Tribune
QUETTA: Frontier Corps (FC) said Wednesday that a car bomb factory where troops confiscated more than 100 tones of chemicals had been used in recent attacks on troops and the Shia community.
Paramilitary troops found wires, detonators and mixers to turn the chemicals into bombs during Tuesdays raid in Quetta.
Eleven people have now been arrested in connection with the case and the owner of the compound has been detained for questioning, said a spokesman for FC.
Suspects told investigators that potassium chlorate and ammonium chlorate had been packed with wires and detonators into vehicles at the compound, a paramilitary official said.
Experts believe the compound was effectively a bomb-making factory, which had prepared explosives used in recent bomb attacks on military targets and Shias.
We have recovered a machine which is basically a mixer, used to mix chemicals to make bombs. We have recovered sulphur and hundreds metre of wire, said the FC spokesman.
We have also recovered 79 remote controls and short circuit wires. Some 20,000 kilograms of explosive were ready at the factory and just needed to be fitted into vehicles, he added.
FC links Quetta ‘bomb-making factory’ to attacks on troops, Shias – The Express Tribune