Drugs rerouted to Punjab from Jammu and Kashmir now
After Border Security Force (BSF) and the Punjab police make it difficult for smugglers to supply drugs in Punjab from Pakistan, smugglers have now changed tracks. They are rerouting the drugs through Jammu and Kashmir into Punjab, majorly in 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.
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.”
“Punjab police has also been launching special operations in the villages bordering Pakistan to investigate suspected activities of heroin smugglers,” a police service official from Tarn Tarn 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.
-PTC News
