— ARRESTED ACCUSED WERE WORKING UNDER DIRECTIONS OF PAKISTAN-BASED HANDLERS: DGP PUNJAB
— RECOVERED WEAPONS WERE TO BE SUPPLIED TO CRIMINALS & GANGSTERS IN PUNJAB, SAYS DGP GAURAV YADAV
CHANDIGARH/AMRITSAR, September 12:
In an intelligence-led operation amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe, secure and drug free state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Counter Intelligence (CI) Amritsar has busted a cross-border arms and narcotics smuggling module linked to Pakistan with arrest of its five operatives and recovered six sophisticated pistols, 1 kg heroin and ₹6 lakh drug money from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.
Those arrested have been identified as Jaskaran Singh of village Bhittewad in Amritsar, Amritpal Singh of village Rangarh in Amritsar, Gurwinder Singh of Boparai in Amritsar, Amandeep Singh of Boparai in Amritsar and Harkeerat Singh of village Mansoora in Ludhiana. The recovered weapons includes two 9MM Glock Pistols along with magazines, two .30 bore Px5 Pistols along with magazines and two .30 bore Star Mark Pistols along with magazines.
Police teams have also impounded their Swift Car, Honda Amaze Car and Splendor motorcycle, which were being used for transporting the consignments.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that preliminary investigations revealed that the arrested accused persons were acting upon the directions of Pakistan-based smugglers, who have been using drones to drop the consignments of illegal weapons and narcotics from across the border. The arrested accused were further supplying the arms to criminals and gangsters in Punjab with the intention to fuel criminal activities in the state, he said.
Sharing operation details, the DGP said that CI Amritsar teams had received a reliable input that a Pak-based smuggler had delivered two separate consignments— weapons and drugs— through drones and which were retrieved by the arrested persons.
Further information revealed that both the consignments were to be further delivered to unknown persons, he said, while adding that acting upon the information a police party launched an intelligence based operation and intercepted these five suspects, when they were waiting to deliver the consignments.
He said that one of the arrested accused turned out to be the hawala operator identified as Harkeerat— from whom Rs 6 lakh was recovered, and further supposed to route the illicit money to Pakistan via hawala channels.
Further investigation is underway to uncover the network’s backward and forward linkages, he added.
A case FIR No. 49 dated 12-09-2025 has been registered under sections 21, 25, 27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar.
