Bangalore: Striking in a big way, the city police have unearthed the biggest-ever cache of explosives in Bangalore and seized 2,170 detonators and chemicals used for Improvised Explosive Device from five unidentified militants.

The haul which averted a "disaster" yielded 1,200 electric detonators, 970 ordinary detonators, empty pipe bombs and explosive materials from the houses and godowns of the arrested militants, Home Minister Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters.

The links of the militants, at least one of whom was trained by People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in 1985 in Tamil Nadu, was being probed as also their plans for carrying out subversive activity, Kharge and city police commissioner M D Singh said.

Thirteen empty pipe bombs, safety fuses, ammonium nitrate, throw down grenade, potassium nitrate, nine hand grenades, 75 live rounds, two carbine magazines and other explosive and printed materials and a manual of bomb manufacture were also seized, Singh said.

"They (the explosives) are for killings only. These can be possessed only by militants," the city police chief said, describing the arrested men as militants but added that their links and motive were being probed. All arrested are Indian nationals.

Two of them were arrested on November four, leading to the nabbing of their three other associates and the seizure four days later.

The seizure comes close on the heels of gunning down of five militants of an Islamic militant group during a joint operation carried out by the Tamil Nadu commandos and the city police on their hideout recently.

PTI