Amritsar Police bust alleged Pakistan-linked drone arms smuggling module, arrest 4

Amritsar Police on Saturday claimed to have dismantled a major cross-border arms smuggling module allegedly operated through drones, arresting four persons and recovering 10 sophisticated pistols during a coordinated operation based on intelligence inputs.

Addressing a press conference, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the recovered cache included eight .30 bore pistols and two 9 mm pistols. Some of the weapons were found to be of Chinese and Pakistani origin. Police also seized a quantity of live cartridges during the operation.

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Bhullar said the preliminary investigation revealed that the accused were part of a network linked to Pakistan-based smugglers, who allegedly used drones to drop consignments of illegal weapons into Indian territory. The arms were allegedly collected by local operatives and supplied further through the network.

The four arrested accused have been identified as Ravi and Sharanvir from the Amritsar rural area, and Manpreet alias Mannu and Pippal Singh from Ferozepur district. According to police, the accused are between 21 and 33 years of age and worked as labourers and vehicle mechanics. Officials said no major criminal record has surfaced against them so far.

The Police Commissioner said the investigation had identified a Pakistan-based handler known as “Chacha”, who is believed to have coordinated the cross-border smuggling operation. He alleged that the network targeted economically vulnerable and unemployed youth living in border areas by luring them with money to receive and transport illegal weapon consignments.

Bhullar further said the module was active in both the Attari and Ferozepur border sectors, where drone-dropped consignments were allegedly received by local operatives before being distributed further.

He said the operation was carried out jointly by teams from the Investigation Wing, Anti-Narcotics Cell and Anti-Gangster Unit under the supervision of senior police officers, including DCP Investigation Ravinder Pal Singh, ADCP Jagwinder Singh and the ACP (Investigation).

Warning that such cross-border networks pose a serious threat to national security and exploit Punjab’s youth for criminal activities, the Police Commissioner appealed to the public to immediately report any suspicious movement or activity to the police to help prevent similar incidents.