Police said Thursday they had seized a huge quantity of explosives and arrested eight people in raids at three shops on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad. The haul included 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds) of explosives, more than 500 detonators, empty bullet cartridges and sacks of chemicals, Islamabad police chief Asghar Gardezi told a foreign news agency. Police conducted the raids late on Wednesday on intelligence information about the storage of explosives in the shops owned by two brothers from the tribal Dir district bordering Afghanistan. "It is a very important breakthrough. The recovery suggests the explosives might have been meant for terror attacks, but we are investigating," Gardezi said.