Chandigarh, March 19 (IANS) In a major breakthrough, Punjab Police's Anti Gangster Task Force (AGTF), in a joint operation with the Special Task Force of Haryana, on Thursday, arrested two shooters involved in the murder of a property dealer in Chandigarh's Sector-9 after a brief exchange of firing and recovered three sophisticated weapons from their possession, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said here.

Those arrested have been identified as Rajan alias Piyush Pehalwan, a resident of Ferozepur, and Pritam Shah, a resident of Nawashahr, both located in Punjab.

The recovered weapons include .30 bore PX-5 pistol, .30 caliber Chinese pistol and .32 caliber pistol along with ammunition.

As per the information, victim Charanpreet Singh alias Chinni, was shot dead by two assailants in Sector-9 on Wednesday.

DGP Yadav said the accused are the key aides of fugitive gangster Lucky Patial of the Bambiha gang.

"Preliminary investigation has also said that Rajan alias Piyush Pehalwan was also wanted in the high-profile murder of Yadwinder Singh, driver of Jiwanjot Singh alias Jugnu," the DGP added.

He said that AGTF Punjab has unmasked the entire module and arrested the accused in less than 30 hours.

Further investigations are ongoing, he added.

Sharing operational details, Punjab Additional Director General of Police (AGTF), Promod Ban, said that following the incident, AGTF promptly launched a special operation "OPs Silent Trigger" under the supervision of AGTF Deputy Inspector General of Police Gurmit Singh Chauhan to unmask and arrest the accused persons involved in this case.

He added that during the operation, the accused opened fire on police teams led by Punjab Superintendent of Police (AGTF) Bikramjit Singh Brar.

In the retaliatory exchange, both accused sustained injuries and were immediately shifted to the hospital for treatment, the AGTF SP said.

The Punjab Additional Director General of Police said that initial questioning has also revealed that the accused Piyush came from Malaysia via Nepal to execute the killing on the directions of his foreign-based handler.

--IANS

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