Afghan forces seize huge bomb-making cache at Pak border

kabul — Afghan security forces on Sunday seized 156 sacks of ammonium nitrate, widely used in making explosives, from the back of a vegetable truck crossing from Pakistan, an official said, in one of the biggest such finds.

Intelligence officers found nearly eight tonnes of the chemical, “brought for insurgent activities”, hidden under sacks of vegetables on the truck at the Torkham border crossing, at the end of the Khyber Pass, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province said.

Ammonium nitrate is widely used as a fertiliser, but for security reasons, imports into Afghanistan are banned.

Afghanistan faces insurgencies by the Taleban, Daesh group and the Taleban-linked Haqqani network. Pakistan and Afghanistan frequently accuse each other of harbouring terrorists planning cross-border raids.

A massive truck bomb struck the Afghan capital, Kabul, in May last year, killing more than 150 people.

The Taleban on Saturday announced a surprise three-day ceasefire over the Eid holiday this month, their first offer of its kind, days after the government declared an unconditional ceasefire of its own.

The governor of Nangarhar was dismissed last month as part of an administrative shakeup in a region where security has sharply deteriorated. —