Ghaziabad: A Muslim cleric has been arrested for gunrunning and 12 pistols have been seized from him in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar told the media that Hafiz Mohammad Tahir, an Imam at a mosque in Jansath town, was operating a gang that supplied locally made weapons in western Uttar Pradesh.

The gang bought the firearms from Munger in Bihar and sold them in Shamli, Kairana and Kandhla areas in Uttar Pradesh, the officer said.

Police said Tahir was arrested after he promised to deliver a dozen pistols to a decoy customer. He was arrested in 2008 too on the same charge.