LAHORE, Dec 30: CIA police on Saturday arrested two arms smugglers and seized a large quantity of illegal weapons in Ravi Road area.

The weapons, including 187 pump action guns, 175 pistols and more than 200,000 cartridges, which were purchased against bogus documents, were being smuggled from the NWFP to Lahore and other districts of the Punjab, said Additional IG Khawaja Khalid Farooq at a press conference.

He said on a tip-off that illegal weapons were being smuggled from the NWFP, a special team led by CIA SP Masood Aziz conducted a raid on M/S Iftikhar Awan Arms & Ammunition on Ravi Road and seized weapons after arresting Roohullah and Rohail Khan.

The City police chief said that the dealer had purchased seized arms from Noor Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers, Industrial Estate, Peshawar, on forged documents.

After verification, it was learnt that the dealer bought weapons on a fake authority letter of the Lahore DCO and the Home department.

The accused purchased 399 pump action guns, 400 pistols and 295,000 cartridges, out of which 212 pump action guns, 225 pistols and 85,000 cartridges were sold to Mian Asghar Ali & Company, Ravi Road; Muhammad Younas & Company, Nila Gumbad; FDAS & Company, Ravi Road; and Haji Noor Muhammad & Company, Ravi Road.

Mr Farooq said all dealers had absconded after closing their shops and teams had been constituted for their arrest, adding that the accused had been selling illegal arms to criminals since long.

He said the police were also analysing the aspect whether the seized weapons were to be used for creating law and order problems in the city.

He said from now on the entire record of arms dealers would be checked.

Answering a question, Mr Farooq said that at least 8,000 police officials were being deployed to perform security duty on Eidul Azha and the New Year night in the city.

He said that Eid pickets would not be established while some pickets under the supervision of SPs concerned were set up for capturing criminals.