Army arrests 23-year-old man with heroin worth ₹2-cr on LoC
JAMMU: The Indian Army apprehended a man with heroin worth ₹2 crore near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Bhimber Gali area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, late Monday evening.
The person is identified as Mohammed Kasim, 23, son of Mohammed Mushtaq Chowdhary. He is a resident of Hamirpur village in Balakote block in Poonch district.
Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta said two packets of heroin, valued approximately ₹2 crores in the international market, were recovered from Kasim’s possession.
“Under the garb of grazing cattle, Mohammed Kasim had gone to the LoC and received the consignment of heroin from a Pakistan national. The alert troops challenged and apprehended him,” said Lt Col Mehta.
He added: “The arrest is a significant blow to the nefarious designs of the Pakistan Army in facilitating drug smuggling to fund terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.”
An first information report (FIR) has been lodged with the Poonch police and the area is being searched, he said.
Commenting on the incident, an intelligence official said, “The Pakistan Army and Pakistan Rangers have been using their conduits on the LoC and international border to pump narcotics and hawala money into J&K for funding terror activities.”
In December 2013, the BSF had recovered a consignment of heroin worth ₹10 crore, three Pakistani SIM cards and a mobile phone from Korotana Khurd village along the International Border in RS Pura sector of Jammu district. Back then, the BSF had suspected a “big syndicate active on the Indian side of the border”, apparently to fund terrorism via narcotics and hawala money.
The BSF had then detained four villagers from Korotana Khurd in this regard.
Speaking about the role of the Pakistan Army and Pak Rangers in “fuelling drug smuggling” along the LoC and IB, the intelligence source said, “Smugglers and ultras, who are backed by Pakistan Army and Pak Rangers, engage couriers and throw narcotics and Pakistani SIM cards on the Indian territory to fund terror activities.” He added: “The Dinanagar terror attack on July 27, 2015 and the Pathankot airbase attack on January 2, 2016 had one thing in common i.e. the attackers were helped by transborder drug smugglers.”