Kuwait to contact Indian authorities over terrorism-linked drug dealers

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti authorities launched preparations to contact their Indian counterparts and inquire about news that drug dealers in the Gulf state were financing terrorist activities in India according to a recent New York Times report.

The American newspaper’s report last week quotes the Indian police who said that they “had intercepted 22 pounds of heroin headed from Pakistan to South India, breaking up a network that included a police officer from Indian-administered Kashmir”.

Yesterday, Al-Rai quoted a ‘high-ranked security source’ who revealed that Kuwaiti authorities are preparing to contact their Indian counterparts and request the detainees names and details about the interrogation process. “Local authorities are looking to verify whether the suspects are connected with people currently residing in Kuwait,” said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

SN Srivastav, a senior police officer in the Indian police, was quoted by the New York Times saying that the transaction “was planned by a Kuwaitbased syndicate linked to Hizb-ul-Mujahidin,” a banned terrorist network based in Pakistan. “Proceeds from the sale of the heroin would be used to finance terrorist acts in India,” Srivastav said.

According to Srivastav, the shipment was transported over the heavily militarized, hilly border between Pakistan and India, and was to be carried by train to New Delhi. The Indian police said they arrested four members of the same syndicate late last year, confiscating 103 pounds of heroin and four pounds of crack cocaine, New York Times reported.