DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The Sangrur district police on Saturday claimed to have busted an interstate illegal arms supply racket with the arrest of two persons. Two country-made weapons along with ammunition has also been recovered from their possession, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Sangrur, Swapan Sharma said. The two have been identified as Pawan Kumar, a resident of district Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and Kulwinder Singh, a resident of district Muktsar. The SSP said that following the rise in incidents of illegal weapons supply in Sangrur district and surrounding areas, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Yogesh Kumar, was formed. During a month-long rigorous investigation, the SIT has been able to bust this interstate racket, he said. Pawan Kumar has allegedly supplied several weapons in the area of Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts, he said. The Sangrur SSP said he was working on the behest of a man, who is a resident of district Aligarh and has served in the army. Apparently, the man was in contact with an illegal arms manufacturer based out of Madhya Pradesh and he has several conduits, who have been making trips to deliver country-made weapons to anti-social elements in the state, the SSP was quoted as saying in an official release here. Investigation in the previous cases also points to Madhya Pradesh as a point of origin of these country-made weapons, he said. Meanwhile, under a special operation launched by the district Rupnagar Police, an inter-state gang involved in illegal arms business was busted with the arrest of five people and recovery of five country- made pistols, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rupnagar Vivek Sheel Soni said. He said that acting on a tip-off, Rupnagar police teams had conducted a raid and nabbed five persons with arms who were engaged in illegal arms smuggling from other states. The accused said during interrogation they had bought the weapons from Balwari, Madhya Pradesh for Rs 20,000 per pistol and had already sold about 25 such weapons. (editor@dailyworld.in)