HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Chandigarh : Punjab Police on Friday seized two highly sophisticated China-made drones, and arrested an army jawan and two smugglers having links with Pakistan-backed narco-terror module. The drones were being used to smuggle weapons and drugs from across the border, police said.

The police have also seized drone batteries, custom-made drone containers, two walkie-talkie sets, ₹6.22 lakh in cash (believed to be proceeds of drugs) and the magazine of an INSAS rifle from the accused.

According to DGP Dinkar Gupta, those arrested have been identified as Dharminder Singh of Dhanoa Khurd village in Amritsar, army Naik Rahul Chauhan of Pooja Vihar in Ambala Cantonment in Haryana, and Balkar Singh of Kalas village in Amritsar.

Dharminder was arrested from a Hardo Rattan village on the Indo-Pak border, while Balkar was brought on Production warrant on Thursday from Amritsar jail where he is lodged in a drug case. Chauhan was reportedly involved in procuring and supplying drones and training to smugglers. He is said to be the kingpin of the racket.

The DGP said the drones, capable of travelling 2-3 kms on either side of the border were reportedly being launched from the Indian side to fly into Pakistan to pick up payloads of narcotics. He said two members of this module were still absconding and investigations were underway to find out the accused other links.

“Preliminary investigations confirmed that Chauhan was directly involved in operating drone sorties across the border for picking up heroin as well as weapons from Pakistan with the help of his associates in India and Pakistan. He and his accomplices were in direct contact with Pakistani smugglers on encrypted messaging platforms. Latest plan was to send one of the walkie talkie sets across the border to Pakistan to facilitate two-way communication,” said the DGP.

In September last year, police had busted Pakistan-supported Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) module that was dropping arms and ammunitions in border areas using drones.

The members have revealed that they were involved in cross-border smuggling of drugs and weapons over drones over the past few months. The first drone (Quadcopter) was recovered from an abandoned government dispensary building in Modhe village in Amritsar, hidden by Dharminder and his associates. The second drone was recovered from a house in Karnal on the disclosures of Chauhan. The house belongs to a friend of Chauhan.

Gupta said the police had launched a covert operation to ensure close monitoring and checking of the border areas in view of the recent influx of weapons and drugs from across the border through drones as well as other means.