DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Police on Thursday claimed to have busted a cross-border illegal arms smuggling module linked to Pakistan with the arrest of one person in Amritsar. Police recovered 10 pistols along with magazines allegedly from the possession of the accused identified as Harjinder Singh, a resident of the Dall village in Tarn Taran.

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said the accused is a notorious narcotics smuggler with two cases pertaining to Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act registered against him, and had recently come out on bail.

The development came a fortnight after Counter Intelligence (CI), Amritsar busted a similar cross-border narcotics and arms smuggling module with the arrest of its three operatives and recovered eight sophisticated weapons, one kg heroin and Rs 2.90 lakh cash from their possession. Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused was allegedly working in collusion with a Pakistan-based smuggler, who has been using drones to drop weapon consignments from across the border.

The accused used to distribute the arms to criminals and gangsters across Punjab with intention to fuel criminal activities in the state, he said.

The DGP said that teams of CI Amritsar received specific intelligence about retrieval of weapons consignments from the India-Pakistan border area in Tarn Taran.

(editor@dailyworld.in)