Punjab police busts interstate weapons smuggling module backed by Lakhbir Landa, two held with 6 sophisticated pistols

CHANDIGARH: Amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) Amritsar has busted an inter-state weapon smuggling module with the arrest of two operatives of foreign-based terrorist Lakhbir alias Landa and recovered six .32 bore sophisticated pistols along with magazines and ammunition from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Monday.

Those arrested have been identified as Sumitpal Singh of village Thathian in Tarn Taran and Arpandeep Singh of Chamba Kalan in Tarn Taran.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on intel-inputs that associates of Lawrence Bishnoi has retrieved weapons consignment from Madhya Pradesh (MP), Police teams from SSOC Amritsar launched an operation and apprehended both the accused persons from near Railway Station Amritsar.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that accused persons were directly in touch with MP based illegal weapons dealer, he said, while 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 that this is the second consignment procured by the arrested accused persons from same MP based weapon dealer in last two months, who has been identified by the Police. Investigations are going on to establish backward and forward linkages to further arrest remaining accused persons and dismantle illegal weapon smuggling operating from Madhya Pradesh.

Sharing more details, AIG SSOC Amritsar Sukhminder Singh Mann said that arrested accused persons revealed that they procured this weapon consignment to further sell it to criminal elements to carry out criminal activities. Accused persons also confessed to have sold off two .32 bore pistols to two unknown persons in the area of Harike a month back, he said.

In this regard, a case FIR No. 42 dated 14.07.2024 has been registered under section 25 of the Arms Act and section 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Police Station SSOC Amritsar.