FC seizes hoard of arms, ammunition in Dasht

A Pakistani security personell examines bullets displayed at a security compound in Quetta late March 8, 2013. PHOTO: AFP

DASHT: Frontier Corps seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition in an operation in Dasht area of Balochistan on Friday, reported Radio Pakistan. According to AFP, eight suspected militants were also detained.

The seized weapons included machine guns‚ sniper rifles‚ rocket propelled grenades‚ detonators and explosive material. The collection was displayed at a security compound in the city of Quetta on March 8.

Violence in Balochistan has escalated with recent terror attacks targeting the Hazara community residing in the province. A bomb at a market in Hazara Town, a Shia neighbourhood in the suburbs of Quetta, killed 89 people. The Supreme Court announced to take suo motu notice of the killings of the Hazara community.

There are reports of missing persons from the region as well, with numbers going as high as23,000 persons according to Nasrullah Baloch, the chairperson of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons.

A Balochistan MPA was also kidnapped earlier in the week from Kuchlack, just outside of Quetta. A group of armed men dressed in Frontier Corps uniform kidnapped Balochistan Assembly member and leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) Malik Sultan Tareen in the Bostan area of Pishin district on Tuesday.

Violence continued to plague Balochistan on Wednesday when four people were killed and one was injured in separate incidents across the province, while a bomb also exploded in Chaman district.

The chief justice has taken the on-going violence into notice and security forces conduct raids to find miscreants and their supplies.