Terror plot foiled: Police recover cache of arms, IEDs during raid

TTP commander and his aides fled before police reached the house.

DI KHAN: Police claimed to have thwarted a terror plot on Sunday following the discovery of a huge cache of arms and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during a raid on the home of a local commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“In Roodi village of Kulachi tehsil of DI Khan district, regular and elite police personnel raided the house of a local TTP commander, Qutubuddin, in the early hours of Sunday and recovered weaponry,” according to a statement issued by the district police officer (DPO) in DI Khan.

A police official said that the raid was carried out on the basis of a tip-off regarding the presence of the TTP commander. He said the TTP commander and his colleagues had fled from the scene before the raid.

However, due to timely action, police officials foiled a terror plot and recovered more than a dozen remote controlled IEDs, material used in suicide jackets, four fuses of a rocket launcher, bullets of a Kalashnikov and other IED material, a statement said.

Qutubuddin is wanted by police on charges of murder, kidnapping and attacks on Daraban police station, Kulachi police station and security forces. The TTP commander is also a cousin of Imran Gandapur, who was killed in an exchange of fire with police two years ago.

Following the raid, security has been tightened across DI Khan by Deputy Inspector General Abdul Ghaffar Afridi. The police are also carrying out raids to discourage kidnapping, extortion, and also to ensure security in the wake of Zarb-e-Azb military operation in the North Waziristan Agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2014.