KARACHI: The City Police investigation department has detained three people in connection with the huge quantity of ‘old and rusted’ arms that were recovered from beneath the ground floor of a building in old city area of Lea Market.
The detained suspects were identified as Mohammad Saleem, Mohammad Shafeeq and Faizan. According to police, the detainees held control of the building with them at different times since year 1984. “The building is property of a former governor’s trust,” police said.
Meanwhile, the suspects have expressed their ignorance about the weapons hidden on the ground floor of the building located on Siddiq Wahab Road.
The police operation, launched on Friday night, led to the recovery of 63 revolvers, 183 sten guns, 13 anti-aircraft guns, six mausers and pieces of different sophisticated weapons.
Napier SHO Zafar Iqbal said that a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged under relevant sections of the Sindh Arms Act-2013 and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on behalf of the state through Super Market SHO Mohammed Riaz.
The complainant told the police that he received information about presence of sophisticated weapons inside an old building belonging to a trust.
According to the FIR, the arms were hidden under the ground floor spread over 30 to 35 feet and digging was carried out up to three- to three-and-a-half feet deep. The place of the incident was at a distance of around 150 yards away from the Napier police station.
Khawaja Ajmer Nagri DSP Moin, who supervised the operation, told the media on Sunday that the operation had been completed. He said the recovered arms had been taken to a safe place temporarily as Sunday was holiday.
City SSP Sarfraz Nawaz Shaikh had stated that the investigators would approach army experts for ascertaining the origins of the weapons. The investigating officer said that all recovered weapons were old and rusted. “These are basically pieces of different weapons,” he added.
