SUKKUR, Feb 14: Ghotki police on Saturday arrested a police armourer and his assistant for allegedly selling official weapons worth Rs2 million.

The action was taken after 18 official weapons including nine G-3 rifles, seven Kalashnikov rifles and two semi-automatic rifles were found missing from the armoury shop of police lines Ghotki.

Bello Mirpur police has registered a case against police armourer Lal Bux Noohani and his assistant Zulfiqar Naich and have locked them up.

Ghotki DPO Jawed Jiskani told Dawn that complaints were pouring in against the armourer that he was involved in repairing arms belonging to criminals. He said that the armourer used to replace faulty parts of private weapons with the official weapons, which were lying with him for repairs.

He said that on Feb 12 he had ordered the DSP headquarter to probe into the matter and on Saturday when the DSP visited the armoury shop, the armourer, Lal Bux, told him that some one had broken the locks of the armoury and had stolen nine G-3 rifles, seven KK rifles and two semi-automatic rifles worth Rs2 million.

The DPO said that when he personally visited the armoury, he concluded that the story was fabricated, because eight to 10 policemen guarded the armoury round-the-clock. He said that Lal Bux Noohani and his assistant Zulfiqar Naich had been booked and arrested and investigations were under way.