Five held as SIU busts interprovincial gang of arms suppliers

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of Karachi’s Crime Investigation Agency claimed to have busted an interprovincial gang of arms smugglers and arrested five suspects on Thursday.

The arrests were made during a raid conducted on a tip-off in North Nazimabad’s Nusrat Bhutto Colony. The suspects were identified as Zeeshan Abbasi, son of Muhammad Khalil Abbasi, Abbas alias Arbaaz, son of Raz, Anwar Jan, son of Muhammad Marjan, Imran, son of Nasrullah, and Mohsin, son of Sikandar. The police also seized five 9mm pistols from their possession.

According to the SIU spokesperson, the gang members smuggled arms from Darra Adam Khel and sell them to criminal elements in Karachi. He said they used to bring arms from Darra Adam Khel to Abbottabad, where Faizan, a close relative of Zeeshan, who is posted at the DPO office, packed arms in sweet boxes.

The packing process took place at Zeeshan’s shop, namely Abbasi Arms and Ammunition, in Abbottabad, the spokesperson said. The sweet boxes carrying arms were then delivered to Karachi by intercity buses.

Zeeshan and Anwar were assigned the task of collecting the arms and selling them to criminals through their network. The arrested suspect, Anwar, was a police constable who was posted at the Madadgar-15 at Paposh Nagar police station. Cases have been registered and the investigation is under way.