Days after busting an inter-state gang backed by Gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Harwinder Rinda, the Punjab Police has arrested 13 more associates including nine sharpshooters of the gang.

Addressing a Press conference on Thursday, Inspector General of Police (IGP) headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill said the Jalandhar Rural Police chased down accused persons after a two-week-long operation led by special teams.

Those arrested have been identified as Avtar alias Mangal, Jobanpreet, Akashdeep, Harpreet alias Kaka, Arashdeep, Lovjit, and Resham alias Bao, all residents of Tarn Taran; Gurpreet alias Ghumma Shooter, Bobby alias Baba and Sonu alias Pula of Ferozepur; Gurpreet alias Gopi and Harman Kalsi of Jalandhar; Balwinder alias Billa of Kapurthala.

The police have also recovered 13 sophisticated weapons along with 18 cartridges from their possession.

The IGP said  after the arrest of 11 members of the gang on 29 June, the Jalandhar Rural Police have been working on some leads to arrest the remaining associates of this gang. All the arrested persons are history-sheeters and are facing cases of heinous crime in the districts including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Khanna, Mohali, and Patiala, he added.

Gill said the group was active in most districts in Punjab for the last four years and the arrested persons had been involved in crimes including murders, armed dacoity, organized extortion and highway robbery.

“After busting this gang, the Punjab Police has thwarted at least five murders and seven armed dacoities and robberies,” said the IGP.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Jalandhar Rural, Swapan Sharma said as per preliminary investigation, this gang was being operated by Ghumma and Gopi, associated with Markas alias Massa, who had been taking directions from Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Lawrence Bishnoai. Massa, a resident of Ferozepur is in jail with 18 criminal cases registered against him.

The SSP said that Gurpreet Gopi and Jobanpreet, who have seven criminal cases registered against them, were planning to eliminate three members of the Bambiha-Pinda gang. A recce to this effect was also executed and weapons were procured from an arms supplier from Madhya Pradesh, he added.

Sharma said Resham alias Bao and Gurpreet alias Ghumma Shooter, who also have seven criminal cases registered against them, were planning to terminate two persons from their arch-rival Bambiha-Gounder gang.

Meanwhile, the police are now working to identify and nab those persons who had provided harbors, financial and logistic support to the accused persons besides arresting arms suppliers from Madhya Pradesh.