Near the India-Pakistan border, the Special Cell of Amritsar Police on June 7 arrested a Madhya Pradesh resident Shamveer Gujrat from Neshta village in Gharinda police station area with a Glock pistol smuggled from Pakistan via drone.
With two criminal cases against him, Gujar, a resident of Jhatoli village in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, had come in contact with Pakistan-based smugglers through a foreign-based gangster who arranged the weapon for him. He travelled around 1,200 kilometres from his native district to reach here to obtain the Pakistan-smuggled weapon.
His arrest highlights not only the ease with which these sophisticated weapons are being smuggled into Indian territory.
Evidently, Madhya Pradesh is also infamous for the manufacturing of illegal country-made weapons. But the craze for smuggled weapons extends beyond Punjab borders.
As per police records, the Punjab Police have confiscated over 400 small weapons smuggled from Pakistan in 2025. After ‘Operation Sindoor’ launched in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, there has been a massive surge in weapon smuggling. The seizure was eight times higher than the previous year.
Since March 1, 2025, when the Punjab Government launched campaigns against drugs and gangsters, the Amritsar police has also recovered around 325 pistols, the majority of them smuggled from Pakistan.
The Border Security Force (BSF) also confirmed a massive rise in weapon smuggling. Over 200 advanced weapons of various types, including AK-47 rifles, have been seized in 2025. In the past six months alone, it has seized 139 pistols being smuggled from Pakistan by anti-national elements.
According to the BSF, Amritsar and Tarn Taran, having around 200 kilometres of international border with Pakistan and comprising over 60 BoPs (border outposts), witnessed maximum drone intrusions and recovery of weapons. The regular recovery of sophisticated foreign-made weapons has exposed the growing security challenge.
From Austrian Glock pistols, Beretta to Turkish-made PX5, handguns, even assault rifles and sub-machine guns apart from high-quality ammunition, a steady stream of weapons smuggled from Pakistan through drones is finding its way into the hands of criminal elements, enhancing their capabilities and raising concerns among law enforcement agencies.
Nevertheless, these smuggled weapons were basically replicas of the original foreign-based weapons but are as lethal as the original ones, said a senior police official. Unlike country-made weapons, these pistols are highly reliable, accurate and easy to conceal. Their increasing presence has been linked to incidents of extortion, gang rivalries, targeted killings and organised crime. Law enforcement officials believe that easy access to such weapons emboldens criminals and increases the potential for violent offences.
The emergence of drone technology has dramatically altered the nature of cross-border smuggling. Instead of relying on traditional infiltration routes, Pakistan-based smugglers and handlers are increasingly using unmanned aerial vehicles to drop consignments of weapons at predetermined locations along the Punjab border.
Anti-drone measures by security agencies and Punjab Police have failed to bring the desired results.
