Chandigarh police bust Pakistan -linked narco terror network after raids in border districts, 3 held

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

Chandigarh Police has also formally arrested the chief conspirator of the narco terror network, whose members were allegedly involved in the murder of the cashier.

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

Acting on the orders of a foreign handler, the prime conspirator Dharminder Singh alias Goli will be placed on production remand as he is currently in Kapurthala jail in Punjab.

Goli arranged a meeting with the hitmen in the killing of Badshah and the cashier. Police said Badshah gave shelter to Sunny Mehra and Amit, the assailants in the pharmacy cashier murder case, at his home, provided them with a gun and cash, and guided them.

In the statement made by the police, it was stated that police teams were also working to break the gangster network involved in extortion and dismissal.

During the operation in Tarn Taran and Amritsar districts of Punjab, police arrested three accused and seized 3,028 kg of narcotic drug ICE (Methamphetamine), fake notes of face value of Rs 8 lakh, two sophisticated pistols and magazines, exposing a larger inter-state criminal network.

The clues came based on some arrests already made in the cashier murder case.

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

The investigation in the case revealed a deep-rooted, multi-layered criminal line. Officers based in Pakistan and foreign safe havens are taking advantage of Punjab’s geographical proximity to the border to drop contraband via low-flying drones.

Once the load hit the ground, a tightly controlled local network took control, police said.

The statement stated that foreign agents, who operate through end-to-end encrypted messaging applications to bypass intelligence agencies, are coordinating with notorious ringleaders in prison.

The strings in this case were reportedly pulled by Dharminder Singh alias Goli, a seasoned gangster with 32 previous criminal cases accusing him of murder, extortion and drug violations, and who is currently running operations from behind the bars of Kapurthala Jail.

Under Goli’s direction, local border belt officers collected advanced weapons and narcotics dropped from the drone. The syndicate then imported contract killers from Jammu and Kashmir, provided them with safe houses, test-fired smuggled advanced pistols to ensure lethality, and mapped reconnaissance targets before committing violent crimes.

The conspirators arranged financial resources and means in the form of illegal firearms, narcotics, cash and FICN to facilitate crime in Chandigarh.

The investigation also revealed that the same network was involved in the supply of narcotic drugs (ICE) and FICN; This indicates the existence of a larger cross-border and interstate organized crime syndicate.

Further investigations are ongoing to identify and capture other partners involved in the conspiracy, trace the source of the seized contraband and illegal weapons, and uncover the entire network behind the crime.