Pakistani security forces seize 1,000 rifles, claim terror bid thwarted

PESHAWAR: Pakistani security forces today claimed to have thwarted an imminent terror attack in Peshawar by seizing a huge cache of weapons and ammunition, including over 1,000 assault rifles, during raids in the city.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that militants wanted to carry out a major terrorist attack in Peshawar, capital of the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has been frequently targeted by the Pakistani Taliban.

At least 1,000 rifles, some of them foreign-made, were recovered during the raids at the warehouses in the city.

The raids were carried out after receiving information about presence of modern weapons in the area, ISPR said.

The weapons seized included automatic M4 rifles, M6 rifles, telescopes and a huge quantity of bullets.

Security in Peshawar and adjoining areas has been tightened since the attack on Bacha Khan University (BKU) near here on January 20, when Taliban militants breached the varsity complex and shot dead 21 people, including students.

The BKU attack was the second major attack by Pakistani Taliban on a school in the country, the first being the brutal massacre of 150 people, most of the children, at an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014.

On Monday, the BKU was reopened briefly but then closed indefinitely to give students more time to recover from the tragedy.

Yesterday, authorities closed all the schools in Punjab province, following an alert over possible militant attacks.