‘Sindh police officials’ arrested for smuggling arms in Karachi

KARACHI: Railway police foiled bid to smuggle arms to Karachi from Peshawar during a raid and arrested ‘two Sindh police officials, ARY News reported on Sunday.

The railway police foiled arms smuggling bid in Karachi by arresting two ‘Sindh police officials’ for allegedly carrying illegal weapons from Peshawar.

The raiding team recovered weapons hidden in a sack by the accused. The suspects were the officials of the Sindh police, railway police confirmed.

A case was lodged against the accused and interrogation is underway, railway police added.

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On November 10, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police arrested a gang allegedly smuggling weapons on social media.

As per details, the CTD arrested a gang who were smuggling weapons via WhatsApp and Facebook.

The CTD in-charge Raja Umer Khattab said that the gang used to smuggle the latest and sophisticated pistols and other weapons from Darra Adam Khel – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Karachi without any hurdle or check and balance.

Total of 18 pistols were confiscated from the gang. The gang used to buy modern weapons from Peshawar and then smuggle them to Karachi.

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The license of these weapons is fake but it looks real. Some of the pistols were smuggled with real licenses as well. All four members of the alleged smuggling gang were arrested, the CTD in-charge said.

In October, Sindh police had adopted a new strategy to curb street crimes in Karachi and gave an important task to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) to stop illegal arms supply.

The Sindh police department decided to stop the supply of illegal arms to the metropolis for eliminating street crimes. Inspector General (IG) Sindh police had given the task to the CTD of stopping illegal weapons supply to Karachi.

READ: CTD GUNS DOWN TWO ‘TERRORISTS’ IN KARACHI

According to a probe report, illegal weapons were brought to bus stations in Karachi from rural parts of the country, whereas, some bus staffers were also found involved in the arms supply. Moreover, some railway routes were also being used.

The probe report revealed that a locally-manufactured illegal pistol is available for sale at Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 in Karachi. Illegal weapons were used for street crimes, dacoities and terrorist activities.

Sources told ARY News that the Sindh police department constituted CTD teams which will conduct intelligence-based operations.

IG Sindh had also met CTD officers and personnel at Central Police Office (CPO) today and handed over the task of stopping the trade and supply of illegal arms.