The Sindh Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Monday that a major terrorist attack had been averted in Karachi.

Addressing a press conference alongside CTD Additional Inspector General (IG) Zulfiqar Ali Larik, CTD Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ghulam Azfar Mahesar said that law enforcement agencies and the “premier intelligence agency” received information that terrorists, at a distance of 30 to 40km from Karachi, were planning an attack to target the city.

Mahesar said that the terrorists were planning to attack specific targets in Karachi to “destabilise” national security. He said that intelligence agencies, the Special Branch, the Intelligence Bureau as well as CTD Sindh and Balochistan designed a strategy to thwart these plans.

He said that intelligence officials were deployed in different locations, while focusing on Karachi’s west region.

Mahesar said that after several days of robust efforts, officials succeeded in getting information on a terrorist hideout in Raees Goth, Karachi, where terrorists had prepared a large amount of explosives.

He said that upon reciving the information, Sindh CTD and the “premier intelligence agency” conducted a joint raid on the location.

“We captured one terrorist, while three or four of them managed to escape the scene,“ he said. Mahesar affirmed that the agencies had initiated a search operation to ensure their capture.

“The officials recovered a Mazda truck, loaded with explosive materials,” he said. He said 30 big drums filled with explosives, five cylinders filled with explosives and 2,000kg of explosives.

He said that raids were conducted on six sites on the information provided by the terrorist who was arrested, after which another two terrorists were captured, who were also in possession of explosive material.

He said a total of three terrorists had been arrested.

Mahesar said that during the initial interrogation, the terrorists revealed that they were associated with the Bashir Zeb network of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Majeed Brigade.

The CTD official said that the additional interrogation and investigation was underway, and authorities were conducting raids to make more arrests. He further said that facilitators and handlers of this terrorist network were identified.

“All the planning regarding the attack is done from outside the country,“ he said.