Originally published on August 21, 2013
Authorities in Pakistan seized 100 tons of bomb-making material in Quetta on Tuesday night, according to a security official. Col. Maqbool Shah of the Frontier Corps told Reuters that the material was the same type used in two bombings of a predominantly Shi'ite Muslim part of Quetta, one of Pakistan's most violent cities, that killed around 200 people this year.
Reuters reports, "The raid came a day after two men were arrested driving a truck in the city with 15 tons of potassium chlorate, a chemical used in bomb-making, hidden under boxes of potato chips, Shah said.
"Information from the two men led officers to a warehouse stocked with potassium chlorate, circuit wire, sulphur, aluminum powder, acid, detonating equipment, guns and ammunition. There were also machines to mix the materials together, he said.
"Eighty drums of material had been prepared and were ready to explode if a detonator was attached, and ten people were arrested, he added.
"Various militants are active in the city, including the Pakistani Taliban, sectarian groups and separatist nationalist insurgents. Paramilitary government forces have also been accused of abducting and killing civilians, charges they deny.
"It was unclear which group owned the cache of bomb-making equipment. But Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni militant group, claimed the two bombings in Quetta earlier this year.
"In one of the blasts, around a ton of explosives was hidden in a water tanker. In the other, militants packed an ambulance with explosives.
"Both bombings targeted the Hazara Shi'ite community, an ethnically distinct religious minority."
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