Amritsar, May 9:
Frustrated with the success of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Punjab police in cutting off heroin supply lines into Punjab from Pakistan, smugglers have now changed tracks. They are rerouting the drugs through Jammu and Kashmir into Punjab, targeting the two districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran.
Within a month, different wings of the Punjab police have recovered more than 10 kg heroin valued at about Rs 50 crore in the international market being smuggled from J&K into the two districts with the arrest of seven smugglers, including two Kashmiris and an Akali Dal Sarpanch.
A senior Punjab Police Service official from Tarn Taran district who did not want to be named as he’s not authorised to speak to the media said strict monitoring of the 553 km India-Pakistan border by the BSF and police had resulted in disrupting supply lines from Pakistan to Punjab. “Punjab police has also been launching special operations in the villages bordering Pakistan to investigate suspected activities of heroin smugglers,” he said.
Of the 34 drug smugglers arrested last month, 50% had brought in the contraband from J&K, he said. Other drug supplies were coming in from Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
More than twice the amount of heroin has been recovered this year (from January to April 2018) as compared to the same period last year, BSF press releases have stated.
Smugglers who have admitted to getting drug supplies from J&K into Punjab include Hardev Singh alias Rambo from Tarn Taran, arrested on March 28 by the counter intelligence wing with 4 kg heroin; Sartaj Singh aka Teja of Sara-E-Amanat Khan; held on April 26 by the Tarn Taran police on April 26 with 1 kg heroin; Akali sarpanch Amandeep Singh of Tatha village, arrested with 4 kg of heroin on April 28; and Abdul Kaum Khuaza and Latif Mughal of Kupwara in J&K, from whom 150 gm of heroin was recovered, nabbed on Friday last week.
The special task force that had nabbed Khuaza and Latif said they were active in smuggling heroin in the border areas of Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Amritsar.
The 1 kg heroin recovered on Friday from smugglers Nachattar Singh and Joginder Singh of the Bhikhiwind area of Tarn Taran district by counter intelligence officials had again come in from J&K, a Tarn Taran police official said.
Harikrishan Arora, a social activist, said while it was laudable that Punjab police and the BSF had managed to block supply from the Pakistan and Punjab border, strict vigil was also required on the Punjab-J&K border.
A resident of Amarkot, a border village in Tarn Taran, however, said, “The supply of ‘chitta’ (heroin) is rampant in border villages of Tarn Taran but the only difference we are seeing is that the price of the drug, earlier sold for Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per gram, is now being sold for Rs 3,000.”
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
