Pakistan's role under scanner in Sidhu Moosewala murder

IANS

New Delhi, June 21

The investigation and interrogation of the accused in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case has indicated the role of some elements across the border in providing arms and ammunition to the shooters, official sources said here on Tuesday.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested two main shooters -- Priyavrat alias Fauji and Kashish alias Kuldeep -- who were involved in the killing of the Punjabi singer. The accused Priyavrat was the head of the module of the gangsters and led the team of shooters and was in direct touch with Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar at the time of the incident.

In the preliminary interrogation of the accused Priyavrat, it was revealed that he got the consignment of weapons from Pakistan. "Usage of drones in dropping the weapons have come to the fore," sources told IANS.

Notably, Pakistan's ISI has been time and again found responsible in supplying drugs, arms and ammunition to Punjab-based criminals and gangsters. The SIT, which was set up by Punjab DGP VK Bhavra, was also asked to look into this aspect of the alliance of terrorists and gangsters.

According to the central agencies, arms shipments have reached Punjab to such an extent that it is not easy for the police to deal with them. Terrorists and gangsters are currently using AN-94, Assault Rifle, C-30 Pistol, Beretta Pistol, GLOCK 17, and Rocket Propelled Grenade weapons.

Even in the May 9 rocket-propelled grenade blast in Punjab's Mohali, the police arrested six terror suspects that were involved in it. It was officially learnt that Babbar Khalsa International was involved in the attack carried out at the behest of Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.

A senior Delhi police official during the media briefing on Monday had informed that the police on the instance of arrested shooters recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition. "We recovered eight High Explosive grenades along with the Under Barrel Grenade Launcher. HE Grenades are designed for use with Grenade launchers. The recovered Grenade launcher can be mounted on AK-47 assault rifles," he said.

Apart from grenades, the police also found nine electric detonators, one assault rifle along with 20 rounds, three sophisticated star pistols of .30 bore, 36 rounds of 7.62 MM of star pistols and part of AK Series assault rifle.

In further interrogation it was also revealed that the assailants would have used grenades to kill the singer if in any case the guns wouldn't have worked. "If in any case, had the guns or pistols failed to complete the dastardly crime, the shooters had kept these grenades as a back up plan," the senior official said.

Moosewala, 28, one of the most famous Punjabi language singers of the current times, was shot dead on May 29 while he was travelling in a car and six assailants fired over 30 shots at him in Jawaharke village of the Mansa district in Punjab.

Sidhu was found soaked in his own blood on the driving seat of a Mahindra Thar SUV while two more occupants in the car, Sidhu's friends, Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh also received bullet injuries, but they survived.

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