SUKKUR: Large caches of arms and ammunition were seized and eight suspected members of interprovincial arms smuggling gangs were arrested in separate actions by police in different areas of Kandhkot-Kashmore and Jacobabad on Sunday.

Kandhkot-Kashmore ASP told media persons at a press conference that Kashmore police cordoned off the area and started searching vehicles on Haibat Road after receiving a tip-off that smugglers were trying to transfer a huge cache of arms and ammunition through the road connected with a link road leading to riverine area.

He said that during snap-checking of vehicles police found 12,000 bullets, four G-3 rifles, four SMG rifles, one M4 A1 rifle and two pistols along with a large number of magazines hidden in secret chamber of a truck and arrested seven suspects.

He said the suspects were members of an interprovincial arms smuggling gang, who were shifting the weapons to the riverine area. They had impounded the truck and were interrogating the suspects, he said.

He said that the suspects were identified as Ali Bakhsh Gabol, Abdul Shakoor Gabol, Farman Ali Malik, Owais Ahmad Abro, Abdul Qadir Abro, Mujahid Hussain Abro and Shahmir Sabzoi. They had brought the shipment from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and were to shift it to the dacoits operating in the riverine area of Kandhkot-Kashmore district, said the official.

Arms smuggler held in Jacobabad

Police intercepted a car on Shikarpur Road along the Agricultural College in Jacobabad on Sunday after receiving a tip-off and recovered 15 repeaters and as many magazines from a car coming from Balochistan.

DSP Imam Bakhsh Brohi and SHO Sikandar Ali Chandio led a team that recovered the arms and arrested a suspect identified as Hussain Bakhsh Malik, a resident of Kashmore, and took the seized weapons and the car into their custody.

They said that police had lodged a FIR on behalf of state under relevant sections of the law against the suspect, who was shifting the weapons to the riverine area.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2024