Punjab Police busts cross-border drone-based arms smuggling module

Punjab Police has busted a cross-border drone-based arms smuggling module with the arrest of five men during the week, officials said on Saturday.

A cache of sophisticated arms and ammunition were also recovered from them, Punjab Police said in a statement quoting Director-General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav.

The arrested accused include Surinder Singh of Barwala village in Tarn Taran and brothers Harchand Singh and Gursahib Singh of Valtoha in Amritsar.

The police have recovered Rs 1.01 crore in cash, 500 gram heroin, 17 pistols and 400 live cartridges, an MP-4 rifle and 300 rounds, two weighing machines and two currency counting machines from them, he said.

On Wednesday, a team from Counter Intelligence, Amritsar, arrested two members of the module, including a prisoner identified as Jaskaran Singh and his aide Rattanbir Singh. It also recovered 10 foreign-made pistols from locations pinpointed by them, taking the total recovery of pistols to 27.

DGP Yadav said Jaskaran and Rattanbir revealed that their associate Surinder had picked up a consignment of arms/ammunition they had earlier smuggled in from Pakistan with the help of drones.

Using this intelligence, the police arrested Surinder on Friday and recovered 10 pistols with six magazines and 100 live cartridges, he added.

Surinder, on the directions of Jaskaran, used to pick up consignments from Rattanbir to deliver them to Harchand and Gursahib, who were arrested on Saturday.

The DGP added that further investigations are going on to trace the other consignments that may have been retrieved by this module for further delivery to unidentified persons for commission of anti-national activities.

Additional Inspector General of Police (Counter Intelligence), Amritsar, Amarjit Singh Bajwa said Jaskaran confessed that he was in contact with a Pakistan-based smuggler identified as Asif, who delivered consignments of narcotics and arms/ammunition using drones. This was then retrieved by Rattanbir on his direction.

An FIR has been lodged under relevant provisions at Police Station, State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar.