Two farmers from border village held with 4kg heroin in Amritsar
SEIZURES A 9mm country-made pistol, cartridges, a Pak SIM and phone recovered from accused
AMRITSAR : Two farmers from Rajatal village, along the IndiaPakistan border in Amritsar, were arrested with 4.2kg heroin on them, after a brief encounter at Satlani Sahib village, 26km from district headquarters, on Wednesday about 8pm, the police said on Thursday.
From the arrested duo of Basant Singh and Manjinder Singh, both in their early 20s who were on separate bikes, the police have also recovered a 9mm country-made pistol, a Pakistani mobile phone and SIM card, and some cartridges. When arrested, they had travelled around 15km from their village.
Amritsar counterintelligence wing assistant inspector general, Amarjit Singh Bajwa, said, “We had received a tip-off and laid a naka in the village on Wednesday night. The two accused were on separate bikes and did not stop at the barricade, when signaled to. One of them, Basant, opened fire at the police party, leading to an encounter, but we managed to arrest them. We recovered 4.23 kg heroin, a pistol and a Pakistani mobile with SIM card from them.”
Inspector Inderpreet Singh had led the police team.
‘HEROIN CAME FROM PAKISTAN’
Bajwa said preliminary investigation had shown that the accused had received the contraband from across the border around five days ago. He added that the accused were in contact with a Pakistan-based smuggler, Haroon Masih, of Manihala village of Lahore.
“A substantial part of the contraband that came from Pakistan has been smuggled out to parts of the country. The recovered heroin was to be smuggled to Punjab, Chandigarh and Mumbai. Interrogation will reveal the source of the contraband that had already been smuggled,” the AIG added. A case has been registered under sections 21-2261-85 of the NDPS Act and 25-54-59 of the Arms Act.
SIMILAR DRUG HAUL WAS MADE IN JULY
This is not the first instance of Pakistani smugglers sneaking heroin into Indian territory using border residents. In July this year, three people, including Dhir Singh, a resident of Raniya village along the border, were arrested with 3-kg heroin. In that case, the police had named a Pakistani smuggler, Faizal, who had contacted border village residents through Facebook.
“Smugglers from our side are in regular contact with those running the smuggling network in Pakistan. Indian smugglers have started using residents of border areas, like the two arrested on Wednesday. Such people are offered between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh for smuggling 1kg packet of heroin,” a senior counter-intelligence wing officer said. He added more disclosures were expected after interrogation.
Indian smugglers have started using residents of border areas, like the two arrested on Wednesday. Such people are offered between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh for smuggling a 1kg packet of heroin. A POLICE OFFICER