Amritsar police bust cross-border arms smuggling module, 5 held

In a major breakthrough, the Commissionerate Police Amritsar dismantled a cross-border illegal arms smuggling module with alleged links to handlers based in Pakistan.

Police arrested five accused along with one juvenile and seized five sophisticated pistols, 34 live cartridges and a sharp-edged weapon, DGP Gaurav Yadav revealed on X.

The accused were arrested during an operation conducted by the team of Maqboolpura police station.

The seized weapons include a Glock 9 mm pistol, a Taurus 9 mm pistol, a PX5 .30 bore pistol, a Gretta 9 mm pistol made in Pakistan and another .30 bore pistol.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused were in contact with Pakistan-based arms smugglers through social media platforms. The suspects allegedly coordinated the delivery of illegal weapons and were involved in distributing the arms to different locations in and around the city.

Police said the network appears to be part of a larger cross-border smuggling operation aimed at supplying illegal weapons to criminal elements. Authorities are now probing both forward and backward linkages to identify other members of the network and trace the source of the arms.

An FIR under relevant sections of the Arms Act has been registered at Maqboolpura police station in this regard. Further investigation is under way.