Amritsar Police on Wednesday busted an interstate gang of weapon smuggle~with the arrest of five persons, and recovered three pistols along with 30 live bullets from their possession.
Those arrested were identified as Mohammad Akbar (32) of Vallah, Javed Khan (36) of Guru Nanak Vara, Qasim (27) of Kot Khalsa, Mukesh Kumar (26) of Ganganagar and Allmin (32) of Dashmesh Nagar.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Alam Vijay Singh said that acting on a tip off, the police had arrested Mohammad Akbar, Javed Khan and Qasim with a .32 bore pistol and 20 bullets.
During their interrogation, they revealed that they used to procure weapons from Mukesh and Almin Ansari. Following their disclosure, the police nabbed the duo from near railway quarte~in Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar and seized two pistols and 10 live cartridges from their possession.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Vishaljit Singh said that Mukesh used to bring illegal weapons from Rajasthan and in other parts of Punjab through Almin.
He said Mukesh had six criminal cases, including attempt to murder and arms act, against him registered in different parts of Rajasthan.
All the accused arrested were doing menial jobs. However, they were also involved in the illegal arms smuggling racket.
Investigations were in progress to ascertain how many weapons they had supplied so far and who were their clients.