Pak-smuggler's operative held with five pistols in Amritsar

Chandigarh, July 29 (IANS) The Counter Intelligence (CI) team of Amritsar has busted a cross-border arms smuggling module with the arrest of one of its operatives working under the directions of a Pakistan-based smuggler, said Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Tuesday.

The arrested person has been identified as Bharatpreet Singh, a resident of Marhi Megha village in Tarn Taran district.

Police teams have recovered five sophisticated pistols, two 9 MM, two .30 bore and one .32 bore, from his possession, besides impounding his motorcycle being used for transporting the consignments.

DGP Yadav said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested accused person, along with his two other associates, was acting upon the directions of Pakistan-based smuggler, who has been using drones to drop weapon consignments from across the border.

The arrested accused was further supplying arms to criminals and gangsters in Punjab to fuel criminal activities in the state, he said.

Sharing operation details, the DGP said that teams of Counter Intelligence Amritsar received specific intelligence about the retrieval of weapons consignments from the India-Pakistan border area falling near Daliri village in Tarn Taran.

Acting swiftly, police teams have intercepted suspect Bharatpreet Singh from Ibban village in Amritsar, when he was going to deliver the consignment to some party, and recovered illegal weapons from his possession, he added.

Further investigations are underway to uncover the network's backward and forward linkages.

A case was registered on Monday under the Arms Act and various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Police Station State Special Operation Cell in Amritsar.

Last week, Punjab Police's Counter Intelligence (CI) Amritsar busted a cross-border illegal arms smuggling module with links to Pakistan and arrested one of its operatives after recovering ten .30 bore sophisticated pistols along with magazines from his possession, said Director General of Police Yadav here on Thursday.

--IANS

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