NEW DELHI: The arrest of notorious arms supplier Salim Pistol is a major shot in the arm for the Indian security agencies. Pistol, who was in Nepal, was arrested and brought to New Delhi in a joint operation by the Delhi Police Special Cell, Indian Intelligence agencies, and Nepal police.
The arrest of Salim Pistol, originally known as Sheikh Salim, will deal a major blow to the various gangster networks in the country. He was one of the key suppliers of arms to various gangster networks in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Punjab, just to name a few.
The arrest is very crucial, especially in the backdrop of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing a massive gangster-terror network that is threatening internal security to a large extent.
Pistol enjoyed the backing of the ISI and worked on the instructions of Dawood Ibrahim, a dossier on him states. He would pick up the arms from Pakistan and then smuggle them into India before they made their way to various gangster networks.
Investigations had found that he was one of the biggest suppliers of arms to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. His other big client was Hashim Baba, a big-time gangster from Northeast Delhi. The police and the Intelligence agencies would interrogate Salim thoroughly to get leads on several cases.
He is said to be a mentor to the killers of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala. His name had also cropped up in the murder of Maharashtra politician Baba Siddiqui. However, the most important leads he would be able to provide are into the gangster-terror nexus case that the NIA has been probing.
This nexus has its bosses in Pakistan and Canada. Together, they direct gangsters to carry out targeted killings and even terror attacks. This is where Salim Pistol would come in and provide the required arms to these gangsters.
During the investigations into these cases, the security agencies found that the gangsters were using sophisticated weapons. It was Salim who had supplied them with the Zigana, a Turkish-made pistol. These pistols were smuggled into India from Pakistan by Salim and his men.
Salim had also used drones to deliver these pistols into India. Once they were smuggled in from Pakistan, they would be dismantled and hidden in the compartments of vehicles. Once smuggled, the gangsters would reassemble them. These pistols sell at Rs 4 to Rs 6 lakh in India and are often smuggled across the Nepal border or dropped off in Punjab by drones.