Chandigarh, Sep 8 (IANS): The Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) of Punjab Police in a pan-India operation conducted in coordination with central agencies on Friday arrested three key shooters of gangster Sonu Khatri, who is a close associate of terrorist Harvinder Rinda.

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav has identified the arrested shooters as Sukhmanjot Singh, Jaskaran Singh and Jograj Singh. Police teams have also recovered three foreign-made sophisticated pistols of .32 bore from their possession, he added.

“In an intelligence-led operation, police teams under the overall supervision of ADGP Promod Ban have nabbed accused Sukhman Brar from Indo-Nepal border, while he was attempting to escape to Nepal, and other two were arrested from Gurugram,” said the DGP, while adding that trio arrested shooters were planning to prepare fake passports to escape abroad from Kathmandu.

He said all arrested persons are involved in at least five murder cases, including of Makhan, which took place in Nawanshahr in March 2022, besides, five cases of other crimes.

AIG Sandeep Goel, who was leading the operation, said preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused used to commit sensational crimes in the state on the directions of gangster Khatri, and after committing the crime they used to take refuge in hideouts located in different parts of the country and in Nepal.