Shimla, Jan 16 (PTI) Six men were arrested and several vehicles engaged in illegal sand mining were impounded from the river beds in Himachal Pradesh's Una district, police said on Monday.

During the district-wide operation, which was carried on the intervening night of January 15 and 16, the police impounded four tipper trucks, nine tractors and one excavator and JCB each engaged in illegal sand mining.

Also Read | Chandigarh Hit-and-Run Case: Woman Hit by Speeding SUV While Feeding Stray Dog in Sector 53, CCTV Video of Incident Goes Viral.

Seven additional Police platoons (150 police personnel) were provided by the Director General of Police for the operations against illegal mining.

These police personnel and the officers of Una District conducted raids at five stretch along the Punjab-Himachal border, including Bathu-Bathri-Santoshgarh, Khanpur-Nangal-Khurd- Fatehpur, Ghaluwal, Basal and Jankaur.

Also Read | Odisha Shocker: Woman Kills Two-Year-Old Stepson, Hangs Self in Cuttack; Police Suspect Family Dispute.

The accused namely Harpal Singh (28), Parvinder Singh (25), Amanjot Singh (20), Mandeep Singh (35), Jarnail Singh (42) and Gurmukh Singh (27), all hailing from Ropar district of Punjab, have been booked under sections 379, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 21 of Mines and Minerals Act, a spokesperson of the police headquarters said here in a statement.

During this operation, the officials of Mining, Revenue and IPH departments were also involved and services of surveyors were taken to assess the damage caused by illegal miners to river bed and public property in these areas.

The criminals engaged in illegal mining take advantage of the jurisdictional boundary between Punjab and Himachal and carry out their operation during late night hours in inaccessible areas using a network of informers, who keep an eye on movement of police, the spokesperson added.

Police teams conducted raids by keeping this entire operation secret and cordoned and plugged the entry/exit points of these hotspots as a result the above accused were caught red handed.

Congratulating SP Una and the entire Police team for this success, the DGP Sanjay Kundu said that State Police is committed to ensure “zero tolerance policy against the mining mafia” and stringent action is being taken against the persons involved in the illegal mining.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)