Islamabad, Dec. 26: The Pakistan police has claimed that it has foiled an attempt by extremists to create mayhem on the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto by recovering a huge amount of explosives from a terrorist hideout in Karal, in the outskirts of Islamabad.

"Over 650 kilograms of explosive material, including 520 detonating devices (12 packs of two different kinds), 357 bricks of the aemolite explosives, 20 bags of gun powder and 3 bags of sulphur powder, were recovered," the News quoted a source in the police department, as saying.

Three persons identified as Bacha Saeed Khan, Farid Khan and Musa Khan were hiding with the explosives when the police raided the hideout on information from intelligence agencies.

The culprits however managed to give the police a slip.

"The police raided the hideout and successfully recovered 650 kg of explosive material. However, the culprits somehow managed to escape from the scene during the raid," the newspaper quoted Superintendent of police (east zone) Saqib Sultan, as saying.

The police said that it has detained 10 persons for interrogation and registered a case under the Explosives Act and started investigations.

Initial interrogations from the people detained in the raid, reveals that the explosives were transported from Chakwal, around 120 km from Islamabad, by the terrorists, using a mini-truck.

With the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and New Year round the corner, there were intelligence reports about large scale militant attacks on some major cities in Pakistan. The huge cache of explosives has proved that the extremists were planning something big. (ANI)