Punjab: 3 held with Pakistani SIM card

Mohali: Close on the heels of terror attack at Pathankot Air Force base, Punjab police on Monday claimed to have busted a drug smuggling syndicate and arrested three persons from near here, and recovered Pakistani SIM card, mobiles, weapons and ammunition from their possession.

The seizures were made from the three criminals, all involved in an interstate drug smuggling gang, Mohali senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) GP S. Bhullar said here. “The three notorious smugglers had with them foreign made weapons including a Pakistani double-magazine automatic stengun and Pakistani mobile sim card,” he said.

They have been identified as Gurjant Singh alias Bholu (26) and Sandip Singh (25), both residents of village Havelian, about 15 km from Chandigarh, and Jatinder Singh alias Jindi (34), he said.

The three were arrested following a scuffle between them and a police team in which the gangsters had also opened fire at the cops, he said.

Meanwhile, the terrorists who raided Pathankot air base may have entered India assisted by a drugs racket along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border and the heavy arms and ammunition used by them could have been dispatched from the neighbouring country before they crossed the border.