Pakistan Red Mosque arms stolen

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A large cache of arms seized from Pakistani militants has been stolen from the police.

The weapons were captured when the security forces stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad last year after a siege lasting several days.

They had been stored in a police station, but it has now emerged that they have gone missing.

The Interior Ministry says that an investigation has begun and that 10 police officers have been arrested.

"We have taken swift action," said an Interior Ministry spokesman.

The drama surrounding the Red Mosque unfolded in July last year.

At the time, the building was a stronghold of Taleban-style, Islamist militants who refused to surrender to the authorities.

Army commandos laid siege to the complex for a week, and eventually launched an assault in which more than 100 people were killed.

Weekend discovery

The troops seized rocket propelled grenades and dozens of machine guns and assault rifles, and showed them off to the media in the aftermath of the raid.

They were then stored in an Islamabad police station, but at the weekend it was discovered that the arms cache had gone missing.

"Over the passage of time the weapons have been stolen," said the ministry spokesman. "It did not happen in a day."

He said that among the officers detained was the officer in charge of the station.

The bloody, Red Mosque raid incensed militants at the time.

The al-Qaeda organisation said that it should be avenged, and afterwards there were a number of suicide attacks across Pakistan that resulted in hundreds of deaths.