NEW DELHI, July 15: The Punjab Police on Monday claimed that it has busted an interstate weapon smuggling module after arresting two operatives of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa.
Police recovered six pistols from the accused, said Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav. Those arrested have been identified as Sumitpal Singh of village Thathian in Tarn Taran and Arpandeep Singh of Chamba Kalan in Tarn Taran.
Mr Yadav said acting on inputs that associates of Landa retrieved a consignment of weapons from Madhya Pradesh (MP), police teams from Amritsar launched an operation and apprehended both the accused from near Amritsar railway station.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused were directly in touch with an MP-based illegal weapons dealer, he said, adding that about a fortnight back they went to MP by bus to procure this weapon consignment and travelled back to Amritsar by train.
The DGP said this was the second consignment procured by the accused persons from the same MP-based weapon dealer in the last two months, who has been identified by police.
Investigations are going on to establish backward and forward linkages to further arrest remaining accused persons and dismantle weapon smuggling operating from Madhya Pradesh.
Police said arrested accused persons revealed that they procured this weapon consignment to further sell it to criminal elements. The accused also confessed to have sold two pistols to two unknown persons in the area of Harike a month back, the DGP said.
(Manas Dasgupta)