— ARRESTED ACCUSED WERE WORKING UNDER DIRECTIONS OF PAKISTAN-BASED SMUGGLER SIKANDAR NOOR: DGP GAURAV YADAV
— RECOVERED WEAPONS WERE TO BE SUPPLIED TO GANGSTERS IN PUNJAB
CHANDIGARH/AMRITSAR, July 2:
In a major intelligence-based operation amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Counter Intelligence (CI) Amritsar has busted a cross-border narcotics and illegal arms smuggling module with Pakistan links with the arrest of its three operatives and recovered eight sophisticated weapons, 1 kg heroin and Rs 2.9 lakh drug money from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Wednesday.
Those arrested have been identified as Sarabjit Singh, a resident of village Saanke in Ferozepur, Kulwinder Singh, a resident of village Langiana in Ferozepur and Ashmandeep Singh, a resident of Railway Road in Tarn Taran. The recovered weapons include three 9MM Glock pistols, three .30 bore Chinese pistols and two .30 bore PX-5 pistols. Police teams have also recovered a currency counting machine from their possession, besides, impounding their Splendor motorcycle (PB05-AT-1664) being used for transporting the consignments.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused were acting under the directions of Pakistan-based smuggler identified as Sikandar Noor, a resident of Manihala in Pakistan, who has been using drones to drop weapon consignments from across the border. The arrested accused were further distributing the arms to gangsters across Punjab with intention to fuel criminal activities in the state, he said.
Sharing operation details, he said that CI Amritsar received specific intelligence about retrieval of weapons and narcotics consignments from near Indo-Pak border areas falling under the jurisdiction of districts Ferozepur and Tarn Taran. Acting swiftly, police teams have intercepted and apprehended three persons from near Railway Road Tarn Taran, when they were going to deliver the consignment on their motorcycle, and recovered illegal weapons & narcotics from their possession, he added.
The DGP said that further investigations are underway to establish backward and forward linkages in this case and unearth the entire network.
A case FIR No. 35 dated 01-07-2025 u/s 21,25,27-A,29 NDPS Act, 25 Arms Act has been registered at Police Station State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar.
