Jammu, February 19 A terror associate with direct links to handlers based in Pakistan was arrested along with two foreign-made pistols in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Thursday.
Sachin Kumar, also known as "Pamma," a resident of Sair village near the Line of Control, was arrested during a joint operation by police and the Rashtriya Rifles from a forward village in the Nowshera sector, a police spokesman said.
He said a terror module was busted with the arrest of Kumar, who, according to preliminary investigations, was in direct contact with Pakistani-based drug-terror operatives.
Two pistols – one made in Turkey and another in China – were recovered from his possession along with four magazines and 15 rounds of ammunition, the spokesman said.
Earlier, officials said the accused was intercepted and arrested by an army patrol party from Raipur village in Nowshera late Wednesday night.
A case has been registered against Kumar, and further investigation is underway, they said.
Preliminary interrogation revealed that the accused had allegedly received the consignment from across the border and was tasked with delivering it to another person. He was intercepted by the patrol party on specific intelligence provided by the police, the officials said.
Efforts are being made to ascertain the intended recipient of the weapons and to determine other details of the cross-border network, they added.
Meanwhile, security forces launched a search operation in the Marlog and Lodra forests in the Basantgarh area of the Udhampur district after receiving information about the movement of three suspected terrorists.
The search operation was underway when last reports were received, the officials said.
In another development, the Border Security Force (BSF) detained Mithun Singh, a resident of Pathankot in Punjab, after he was found moving in a forward village near Border Outpost Chilliyari in the Samba district this afternoon.
Singh was reportedly selling clothes when he was intercepted and frisked by the BSF, they said, adding that a Pakistani contact number was found on his mobile phone, which raised suspicion about his presence in the sensitive area near the International Border.
He was detained for detailed questioning.