MIANWALI: Police foiled a bid to smuggle a cache of arms and ammunition into Punjab from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and arrested a suspect.

District Police Officer Mujahid Akbar Khan told Dawn on Thursday that since the launch of army operation against militants in North Waziristan, security of the routes from KP had been tightened.

He said at Chashma Bridge checkpost on Wednesday evening, a police party headed by Kundian SHO Ziaullah Khan, along with personnel of sensitive agencies searched a car (No HX 185) coming from KP and recovered illegal arms and ammunition hiddenin its boot.

Mr Khan said the recovered weapons include eight Kalashnikov, as many magazines and 9,000 cartridges, six repeater 12 bore guns with 12 magazines, seven 44 bore rifles, 18 30 bore pistols with 8,000 cartridges, 26 32 bore pistols with 1,800 cartridges and five 303 rifles with 2,400 cartridges.

He said a suspect, Taj Ali, son of Muhammad Jan, of Bannu who was driving the car, was arrested and the vehicle was impounded. He said the suspect was being interrogated to extract information about the criminals who were to receive the weapons.

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