The Border Security Force (BSF) in a joint operation with police has arrested one person and recovered 26 sophisticated firearms including an AK-47 rifle and 25 pistols from his possession near the Indo-Pakistan border in Amritsar in Punjab, a top police official said on Friday.
Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said preliminary investigation revealed that the accused was acting on the directions of an Australia-based associate, who allegedly shared the weapons’ drop location through social media applications.
The accused, identified as Rohan Khosla, a resident of Roopnagar colony in Amritsar, was arrested from near the India-Pakistan International Border (IB) in a joint operation of BSF Punjab and State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) Amritsar.
The recovered firearms include an AK-47 rifle, fourteen 9mm and eleven .30 bore pistols of Norinco Star Mark, Glock, Zigana, Taurus and Walther makers, along with 368 live cartridges and 48 magazines, a Punjab Police statement said.
Apart from recovering a huge cache of arms and ammunition, the team has also found one USA made bullet-proof vest and impounded a car bearing a Punjab registration number which the accused was using to smuggle the weapons, it said.
Sharing operational details, Additional IG, SSOC Amritsar, Sukhminder Singh Mann said acting on an input received from the BSF about retrieval of a drone-dropped weapon consignment in the area of Border Outpost (BOP) Shahpur, the team of SSOC Amritsar and BSF personnel apprehended suspect Rohan Khosla, who was driving Hyundai i20.
During the search of the car, 25 sophisticated pistols and one AK-47 rifle along live cartridges and magazines, and one US-made bullet-proof vest was recovered, he said.
He said it was also learnt that accused was operating as a local link to deliver this consignment to further recipients as per instructions of his Australia-based associate. Further investigation is ongoing.
An FIR was registered on Friday under the provisions of the Arms Act and relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam (civil aviation laws) at Police Station SSOC Amritsar.
Hailing the action as a major breakthrough against cross-border arms smuggling, DGP Yadav said further investigation is underway to establish forward and backward linkages, identify all associates involved, uncover the complete cross-border arms trafficking syndicate and dismantle the terror network, he said.
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