Cross-border weapon smuggling network busted in Ferozepur: Punjab Police

Chandigarh, Nov 11 (PTI) Punjab Police on Tuesday said it has unearthed a cross-border weapon smuggling network with the arrest of two persons in Ferozepur.

Those arrested have been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Gori, a resident of village Ruhela Hazi of Ferozepur and Vikramjeet Singh alias Vicky, a resident of Jalalabad in Fazilka, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday.

Four 9MM Glock pistols, along with four magazines and four live cartridges, were recovered from their possession, Yadav said in a statement.

Yadav said preliminary investigation revealed that the accused, identified as Vikramjeet, maintained direct links with a Pakistan-based smuggler involved in illegal arms trafficking.

Vikramjeet further confessed to supplying weapons to local contacts on the directions of his Pakistani handlers, he said.

The DGP said that Vikramjeet's arrest has also helped in tracing an earlier case involving the recovery of an AK-47 assault rifle from the same cross-border network. Further investigation is ongoing to establish forward and backward linkages in this case, he added.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ferozepur Bhupinder Singh Sidhu said police teams arrested both the accused from Basti Boote Wala and recovered two Glock pistols from their possession. Acting on their disclosure, police teams recovered two additional Glock pistols from the location pinpointed by them, he said.

The SSP said technical analysis of seized digital devices is underway to expose the full supply chain, including foreign handlers and local collaborators. More arrests and recoveries are likely in the coming days, he added.

Meanwhile, the State Special Operation Cell (SSOC), Amritsar, in a joint operation with Counter Intelligence (CI), Pathankot, arrested two individuals associated with a gangster-terror module operating across multiple districts of the state and recovered a sophisticated 9MM Glock pistol along with three magazines and five live cartridges from their possession.

Those arrested have been identified as Harpreet Singh, a resident of Baupur Afgana in Gurdaspur and Navpreet Singh, a resident of village Machhiwal in Amritsar.

Investigation revealed the accused were working at the behest of their UK-based handler, who had arranged the weapon and had tasked them to conduct a recce of specific targets in Gurdaspur, Batala and Amritsar areas.

The accused were planning targeted killings to create panic and communal disturbance in the state, he said.

The DGP said that earlier, two members of the same module were arrested, and a hand grenade and a pistol were recovered from them. Fresh arrests have been made during the probe of the same case, he added.

Sharing operational details, Assistant Inspector General, SSOC, Sukhminder Singh Mann said that building on the leads obtained from the previous operation, SSOC Amritsar and CI Pathankot undertook a meticulous probe to uncover the extent of the network's activities, which led to the identification and arrest of two more individuals connected with the same module.

The AIG informed that further investigation is underway to expose and dismantle the entire network, including its backward and forward linkages. PTI CHS MPL MPL