The Punjab Police's special cell, in its initial probe into the killing of prominent Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala, has found the the quality of all the recovered weapons from the shooters strongly indicates that they were sourced from Pakistan.
Among other things, the probe pointed to the fact that the modern, automatic Kalashnikov rifles used in the killings, recovered by police, all had mountings beneath the barrel capable of accepting underbarrel 40mm grenade launchers, a feature typical of military-grade weapons.
The consignment included eight grenades, an under-barrel grenade launcher, nine electric detonators and an AK-47, reported The Indian Express, quoting Special Cell sources who claimed that the weapons were a contingency plan in case the shooters failed to kill Moosewala.
Pakistan links suspected early on
On June 9, the Punjab Police had detained from Bathinda two key suspects in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case, one of them under investigation for supplying weapons to the killers.
A police official had confirmed the detentions and said that the interrogation of Keshav and Charanjit Singh, alias Chetan Sandhu, was underway to ascertain their role in the killing of the Punjabi singer on May 29.
Keshav allegedly collected weapons from Amritsar and supplied them to the killers, police sources had said. A village on the India-Pakistan border was said to be on the police radar, with police investigating whether the weapons were dropped off by drones from across the border.
Drone-dropped weapons - a new Pakistani tactic
Lethal weapons like assault rifles are regularly smuggled from Pakistan into Indian borders using drones for supply and some on-ground smugglers.
However, in recent months, intelligence agencies have stated that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has created drone centres to smuggle arms and drugs into India. In concert with the Pakistani Rangers, the country’s powerful spy agency has set up six such drone centres so far, according to reports.
Sources in the Border Security Force (BSF) stated they have received intelligence that heightened drone activity is continually noticed at several Pakistani border outposts across the International Border from Ferozepur and Amritsar.
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