Police arrest Muslim cleric for smuggling firearms in Ghaziabad

A Muslim cleric was on Tuesday arrested from Vijay Nagar area in Ghaziabad for allegedly smuggling firearms into the national capital region (NCR) from Bihar’s Munger district.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team intercepted Tahir Hassan (55) at Tigri roundabout. They searched his baggage and found a dozen .32 bore pistols and 11 magazines in it, following which he was arrested, Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar said.

Hassan, a resident of Sherpur area in UP’s Muzaffarnagar district and a cleric of a mosque at Jansath, told police that the arms he was carrying from Munger in Bihar were to be supplied to criminal groups in Noida, Ghaziabad and other regions of NCR, he said.

The SSP said the man had been jailed in the past by the Muzaffarnagar Police’s Crime Branch for allegedly supplying at least 500 illegal arms in the communally-sensitive district.