NEW DELHI: Sources in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have claimed that a Pakistani arms supplier was involved in the supply of weapons that were used in the murder of Punjabi singer and politician Sidhu Moosewala last year.

The Pakistani supplier has been identified as Hamid who currently lives in Dubai. The name came to the fore during the interrogation of a man, named Shahbaz Ansari, who was arrested by NIA in 2022.

"Shahbaz Ansari was a middleman between the arms supplier and the Lawrence gang in the murder of Moosewala. He was arrested by the NIA on December 8, 2022, from Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh). During the interrogation, the names of two hawala operators, Hamid and Fauji, came up.

"During the NIA questioning, Shahbaz Ansari admitted that he had made multiple trips to Dubai and during those trips, he came into contact with a person named Fauji, who is a Pakistani national and works as a hawala operator in Dubai," said a source.

Moosewala, 29, was shot dead by gangsters close to his ancestral village in Mansa in broad daylight on May 29, 2022 in less than 24 hours after his security was curtailed by the Punjab government.

He was on the wheel in a Mahindra Thar SUV when the assailants, believed to be 10-12, fired more than 20 rounds at point-blank range at the singer and his two friends, who got grievous injuries. Moosewala got seven-eight bullets.