Pistols seized from Lahore-Delhi bus

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, MAY 6. Alert customs officials today arrested two passengers of the Lahore-Delhi bus at the Attari-Wagah checkpost this morning and seized two Chinese-made revolvers and some ammunition from them.

The Joint Commissioner (Customs), Mr. M.S. Arora, told reporters in Amritsar that the arrested persons, Mirza Qomar Abbas, 32, and his mother, Haidri Begum, are residents of Seelampuri in Delhi.

Giving details about the seizure, Mr. Arora said officers on duty became suspicious on seeing an unusually heavy water cooler in the duo's baggage. They took it apart and found two Chinese-made pistols wrapped in a polythene bag stuffed into a secret compartment in the base. They also recovered 16 cartridges and two magazines.

Mr. Arora said Mirza Qomar Abbas and his mother had gone to Pakistan on January 11 this year, with a visa valid for one month. Later they decided to stay on illegally. In Delhi, Abbas manufactures buttons for garments.

During interrogation, the two revealed that the water cooler was handed over to them at Lahore, by a person whom they identified as Farookh. While investigations are on, the authorities are convinced that the smugglers backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, would now attempt to use the bus to smuggle contraband. Mr. Arora said this was first seizure of arms effected from passengers on the Lahore-Delhi bus.

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