Chandigarh police bust Pakistan-linked narco-terrorist network, arrest three after raids in border districts

Image used to represent | Photo credit: The Hindu

Police on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) said they had successfully busted a cross-border and interstate arms, narcotics and fake Indian currency (FICN) supply network and arrested three more people following an investigation into the murder of a pharmacy cashier last month.

The Chandigarh police also formally arrested the main conspirator of a narco-terrorist network whose members were allegedly involved in the cashier’s murder.

Akash Kumar alias Mani, Sachin Silvester and Gurmeet Singh Badshah, all from Tarn Taran, were arrested in an operation conducted by the Crime Squad, Chandigarh Police.

Dharminder Singh alias Goli, the main conspirator who was acting on the orders of a foreign handler, will be taken into production custody as he was already in Kapurthala jail in Punjab.

Goli arranged a meeting between Badshah and the gunmen while killing the cashier. Police said Badshah gave shelter in his house to Sunny Mehra and Amit, the shooters in the pharmacy cashier killing case, provided a pistol and cash and guided them.

A police statement said police teams are also working to bust the network of gangsters involved in extortion and shooting cases.

During an operation conducted in Tarn Taran and Amritsar districts of Punjab, the police arrested three accused persons and seized 3.028 kg of the narcotic drug ICE (Methamphetamine), fake currency notes of Rs 8 lakh, two sophisticated pistols and magazines which revealed a larger inter-state criminal network.

The leads emerged based on the arrests already made in the case of the cashier’s murder.

On June 13, two masked men shot dead pharmacy cashier Janki Das (45) in broad daylight in Sector 11, Chandigarh. The incident was captured by a CCTV camera installed inside the store.

The investigation into the case revealed a deep-rooted multi-layered criminal pipeline. Traffickers based in Pakistan and foreign safe havens use Punjab’s geographical proximity to the border to drop contraband via low-flying drone.

Once the cargo hits the ground, a tightly controlled local network takes over, police said.

Foreign agents who operate through end-to-end encrypted messaging apps to evade intelligence agencies coordinate with notorious prison kingpins, the statement said.

Pulling the strings in this case was Dharminder Singh alias Goli, a seasoned gangster with 32 previous criminal cases against him for murder, extortion and drug offences, currently running the operations from behind the bars of Kapurthala jail, it said.

Under Goli’s leadership, local collaborators in the border strip collected sophisticated weapons and narcotics dropped from drones. The syndicate then imported hitmen from Jammu and Kashmir, sheltered them, test-fired smuggled sophisticated pistols to ensure lethality, and mapped out reconnaissance targets before committing violent crimes.

The conspirators arranged illegal firearms, funds in the form of narcotics and cash and FICN and vehicles to facilitate crime in Chandigarh.

The investigation also showed that the same network was involved in the supply of narcotics (ICE) and FICN, suggesting the existence of a larger cross-border and interstate organized crime syndicate.

Further investigations are underway to identify and apprehend other associates involved in the conspiracy, trace the source of the contraband and illegal weapons found and uncover the complete network behind the crime.

Published – 9 Jul 2026 06:39 IST