Consignment flown from Pak via drones, say cops
Nearly 80-kg heroin, which was part of the cache, is yet to be recovered, says state special operation cell
The weapons were dropped at Dera Baba Nanak, Kalanaur and Khemkaran. We are working to find where the heroin was further smuggled to. A SPECIAL OPERATION CELL OFFICIAL
AMRITSAR : A large cache of arms and ammunition, including 48 foreign-made pistols, recovered from a car at Kathunangal village in Amritsar on June 11 was dropped on the Indian side by Pakistani drones at three locations in Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts, the Punjab Police’s state special operation cell (SSOC) has claimed.
Nearly 80-kg heroin, which was also part of the consignment, is yet to be recovered, the officials said.
The SSOC had intercepted a Hyundai i-20 car at a checkpoint at Kathunangal and recovered two nylon bags containing the pistols and ammunition. Jagjit Singh, alias Jaggu (25) of Purian Kalan village in Gurdaspur was arrested on the spot.
The cache included 19 Turkey-made 9mm Zigana pistols, 37 magazines and 45 rounds; nine China-made .30 bore pistols and 22 magazines; 19 Star Mark pistols of .30 bore, 38 magazines and 148 rounds; and an Italian Baretta 9mm pistol and two magazines.
Director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta had said Jagjit was directed by Darmanjit
Singh, alias Darman Kahlon, a former gangster based in the US, to collect the consignment and wait for further instructions. The weapons were meant for ‘carrying out terror activities’ across the country, he had said.
An SSOC official asking not to be named said, “It has emerged that the weapons were dropped by drones at Dera Baba Nanak, Kalanaur (Gurdaspur) and Khemkaran (Tarn Taran). We are working to find where the heroin was further smuggled to. We have also initiated the process to bring Darman back from the US.”
He, however, didn’t disclose
the exact time of the weapons being dropped on the Indian side.
On Tuesday, the SSOC brought an alleged Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) operative Maan Singh Nihang of Samurai village in Gurdaspur on a production warrant from a Ferozepur jail for questioning in connection with the weapon seizure case. Maan was produced in the court of judicial magistrate who sent him to police custody till July 16. Maan’s name emerged in the case during interrogation of the other accused.
Maan, who is facing several criminal cases, was one of the prime accused of a alleged terror module that was busted by the counter-intelligence wing in September 2019. With the arrest of the module’s members, the police had recovered five AK-47 rifles, 4 Chinesemade pistols, nine hand grenades, five satellite phones, Rs 10 lakh in fake Indian currency. The consignment was also allegedly flown from Pakistan in drones. A drone was also recovered by the police later on.
SSOC assistant inspector general (AIG) OS Ghuman said, “Our investigation is still underway and we can’t disclose anything as yet.”
Sources said earlier the SSOC had brought five accused from various jails of the state on production warrant in this case. Darman, the alleged kingpin in the case, has been linked to banned organisations like the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).