BSF foils smuggling attempt in Punjab, recovers M3 and AK47 type rifles
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Aug, 2022 11:03 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 23 (IANS) The Border Security Force (BSF) on Tuesday said it has foiled a smuggling attempt from Pakistan by recovering M3 and AK47 type rifles.
"Alert troops of @BSF_Punjab thwarted a weapons smuggling attempt by recovering 02 M-3 type rifles with 04 mags (magazines), 03 AK-47 type rifles with 06 mags & 02 Pistols with 04 mags during checking/search along the Indo-Pak Border in Distt Ferozepur, Punjab," the BSF said in a tweet.
Punjab shares a 553-km long international border, with a barbed wire fence, with Pakistan.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the borders of the state for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border.
The Director General had called on the Chief Minister here on July 31.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister had said Punjab being a border state faces numerous challenges of smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border.
He had said that this needs to be checked with a heavy hand as it poses a grave threat to the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country.
Mann had said Punjab is fighting the country's war against the drug menace.
The Chief Minister said the government is fully sensitive towards checking cross-border infiltration in Punjab. He said Punjab Police is constantly in touch with the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies for this purpose.
While briefing the officers, the DGP said the topmost priority of the government, as directed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, is to further strengthen the fight against drugs to make Punjab a drug-free state, besides eliminating the gangster culture, maintaining law and order, and detection of crime.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased, whereas Rs 15,000 as immediate relief for the injured. He said free treatment would be provided to the injured.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday carried out his first Cabinet expansion by inducting five legislators, including second-time MLA Aman Arora, into his council of ministers. The expansion came in less than four months of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sweeping to victory in the Assembly elections by winning 92 seats of the 117 seats.
The police have so far managed to nab four of the accused, including one woman, who have been identified as Gurjant Singh (31), Navjot Singh (30), Satpal Singh (28) and Gurpreet Kaur (30).
The ambidextrous sharpshooter, identified as Ankit alias Chhota, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was most desperate to commit the crime."He fired simultaneously from two pistols in his two hands," H.G.S. Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), said during a media briefing.
