Punjab Police dismantle Pakistan-linked arms, narco network; five held

Chandigarh, Nov 16 (IANS) Punjab Police have dismantled a Pakistan-linked arms and narco network with the arrest of five people and recovered six sophisticated pistols along with 1.01 kg heroin from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Sunday.  

Those arrested have been identified as Akash Masih and Prince, Karanbir Singh, alias Karan, Sukhwinder Singh, all residents of Amritsar (Rural) and Gurbhej Singh, alias Bheja, a resident of Tarn Taran.

The recovered pistols include five .30 bore and one 9MM Glock. All the accused belonged to villages close to the international border and were receiving consignments as per the directions of their handlers.

DGP Yadav said preliminary investigation has revealed that the arrested accused were coordinating with Pakistan-based handlers via social media applications to collect and deliver illegal weapons and narcotics within Punjab.

The DGP said further investigation is underway to establish backward and forward linkages to identify handlers and dismantle the entire network.

Sharing operational details, Commissioner of Police (Amritsar) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that at a checkpoint near Chheharta, police teams apprehended accused Akash Masih and Prince, and recovered one .30 bore pistol and one Glock 9mm pistol from their possession.

Acting on technical leads in the follow-up of the case, police teams have arrested Karanbir Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, recovering three .30 bore pistols and 1 kg 10 gm heroin from them, he said, adding that on the disclosure of the accused Karanbir Singh, the police further arrested Gurbhej Singh from whom one .30 bore pistol was recovered.

The Commissioner of Police said that after retrieving the consignments of illegal weapons, the accused were further distributing them to criminal elements in the region.

In this regard, two cases, one under Section 25 of the Arms Act at the police station in Chheharta in Amritsar and another under Sections 25 (1-B) and 25 of the Arms Act and Sections 21-C and 29 of the NDPS Act at the police station cantonment in Amritsar, have been registered.

--IANS

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