KARACHI: A huge cache of Nato weapons and ammunition was recovered by police on Wednesday during a raid on an empty house in the Azizabad area of the metropolis.

Police reportedly seized a large number of weapons including anti-aircraft guns, SMGs, LMGs, sniper rifles,hand grenades and rocket launchers hidden in the water tank of the empty house.

Bulletproof jackets and helmets were also recovered during the raid by police, DawnNews reported.

The raid was conducted after the police was tipped off by a political worker already in police custody.

Karachi police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar termed it the "biggest recovery of arms and ammunition in the history of Karachi".

“In light of disclosures made by a detained suspect, big-wigs of a political party provided help in procuring these arms and ammunition,” said the AIG Karachi, without naming the party and its leaders.

The city police chief claimed that these arms were supposed to be used by the elements residing in London particularly with cooperation of RAW (Indian intelligence agency) for terror activities in the metropolis but it was foiled through timely action by security institutions.

“These weapons were hidden for terror acts to be perpetrated by terrorists of a political party based in South Africa,” said the AIG Karachi.

All the recovered weapons were shifted to the office of Sindh Inspector General.

According to the press release issued by Sindh Police, recovered weapons included 11 anti-aircraft guns, 17 grenade launchers, 39 LMGs, 9 RPG-7, 82 SMGs, 11 7-MM, one M-16, 32 China rifles 7.62, 10 G-3, 5 sniper rifles, 2 repeaters, 9 short SMGs and 245 magazines of SMGs and G-3.

The police also claimed seizing 200 hand grenades, 2000 rifle grenades, 140 bullet-proof jackets and huge quantity of ammunition.

During his press conference, the Sindh AIG informed the media that forensic tests will be conducted to determine whether the weapons have been used in the past to conduct terrorist activities in the metropolis.

He also told that the police are still looking into how long the house has been vacant and who it belongs to.

Earlier in March, a large cache of ammunition was recovered by Rangers during a raid at MQM headquarters, Nine Zero. According to Rangers spokesperson Colonel Tahir, the ammunition stolen from Nato containers was also seized during the search operation.

A number of party workers, including member of MQM's Rabita Committee Amir Khan, were detained during the raid. Huge cache of arms seized near Nine Zero in Azizabad ‘London elements with cooperation of RAW planning killings through network of political party based in South Africa’