Pakistani counterterrorism police seize 2 tons of explosives and arrest 3 in Karachi

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani counterterrorism police raided multiple militant hideouts in the southern port city of Karachi, arresting three suspects and seizing about 2 tons of explosives in an operation officials said thwarted planned attacks.

The bomb-making materials and detonators were intended for attacks in the city by members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group, Zulfiqar Ali Larik, a senior counterterrorism official, and Ghulam Azfar Mahesar, a deputy inspector general of police, told a news conference on Monday.

Larik said one vehicle loaded with explosives was ready to be used and the materials had been transported from the southwestern province of Balochistan, where a separatist insurgency has raged for more than two decades. He alleged the BLA is backed by India, a claim New Delhi denies.

Pakistan often accuses neighboring Afghanistan and its rival India of supporting the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban, two groups that have intensified attacks in Pakistan in recent years. In one of the deadliest strikes in March last year, BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, in an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan. Security forces killed 50 attackers and rescued the remaining passengers.

Mahesar said the raids were conducted jointly by police and intelligence agencies. One suspect was arrested initially, and information obtained during his interrogation led to the arrest of two others, he said. Additional raids were underway to apprehend remaining members of the network who fled, he said.

Baloch separatists have waged an insurgency since the early 2000s, seeking greater autonomy and, in some cases, independence from Pakistan, while demanding a larger share of the province's natural resources. Authorities say the BLA has increasingly sought to use female attackers, apparently in an attempt to avoid detection.

Last week, police detained a teenage girl whom authorities said had been radicalized and recruited online by the BLA to carry out a major suicide attack. No criminal charges were filed against her after officials determined she was a victim rather than a suspect.

In 2022, a female suicide bomber linked to the BLA killed three Chinese teachers near a university campus in Karachi. Over the years, the BLA has expanded its operations, regularly targeting security forces and civilians, including Chinese nationals working on multibillion-dollar projects tied to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.