Two arrested after recovery of arms, ammunition from truck on Jammu-Srinagar highway

Security forces arrested two persons found with arms and ammunition, including an M4 US carbine, an AK rifle and six pistols, near Jawahar tunnel in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Tuesday night.

Official sources said a joint team of police and army intercepted a truck (JK22B-1737), coming from Samba district, near Jawahar tunnel after inputs that militants were travelling along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

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They said during search of the truck, which was coming from Jammu/Akhnoor, one AK rifle with two magazines, one M4 US Carbine with three magazines, and six Chinese pistols with 12 magazines, were recovered.

A senior police officer said two persons onboard the truck were arrested and their interrogation was going on. The arrested persons were identified as Bilal Ahmad Kuttey and Shahnawaz Ahmad Mir, both residents of Shopian district.

Besides, he said, at least three more persons were detained on a lead of police from Ramban district in connection with the incident. “The investigations are underway and further details would be shared later,” the officer added.

Recently J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh had said that Pakistan had adopted a new technique of sending arms and ammunition to the Union Territory using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

He had said such incidents of Pakistani UAVs carrying weapons were detected in Hira Nagar, Kathua and Rajouri districts of Jammu. Another modus operandi of Pakistan to dispatch weapons through trucks to J&K was unearthed in Punjab in the past, he had said.

A senior police officer told DH that the latest cache of arms recovered by the security forces near Jawahar tunnel may have been sent by Pakistan through the same mode. “The militants then use trucks coming to Kashmir from Punjab and Jammu to ferry these weapons,” he said.