BSF and Punjab police nab two Pakistani cross-border smugglers with 29 kg heroin in Ferozepur

In a yet another blow to cross border narco terrorism from Pakistan BSF in a joint operation with Punjab Police (Counter Intelligence, Ferozepur) have apprehended two Pakistani nationals and recovered 29 kg of Heroin from them.

“On the intervening night of 20^th/21^st August the troops observed movement of some miscreants coming from Pakistan to India side around 2:45 am on the bank of river Sutlej near village Gatti Matar district Ferozepur. Troops initially challenged them. On their reaction, sensing imminent threat and to stop further misadventure troops fired upon the smugglers wherein one of them got hit on his hand. Subsequently troops apprehended 2 Pak smugglers along with 26 packets of narcotics/Heroin weighing 29.2 kgs. After first aid the injured smuggler was referred to civil hospital”, said BSF Punjab Frontier in a statement.

Those arrested have been identified as Muhammad Ajmal Riyan of village Kanganpur in district Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan and Sivna of village Alipur in district Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan.

It may be noted that this the third incident in this month wherein BSF has fired on the miscreants trying to sneak in India ’aggressively’ from Pakistan. Previous two incidents were reported from district Tarn Taran near the barbed fencing along the India Pakistan border when BSF shot dead the intruders on August 4 and August 11. An FIR has been registered in this regard under sections 21C, 29 and 30 of the NDPS Act, sections 3/34/20 of the Indian Passport Act and section 14 of Foreign Act at Police Station SSOC Fazilka.

According to DGP Gaurav Yadav, Punjab Police has recovered 142kg heroin this month. Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla recently held a joint coordination-cum-review meeting with senior officials of BSF, Punjab Police, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other Central Agencies where he emphasised that both forces should work as one team and activate good old human intelligence by gathering and sharing real-time information to further strengthen the security at the state border to prevent the cross border smuggling.

Punjab police have recovered 1259.66-Kg Heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas in last 13 months, registration of 13458 FIRs of which 1630 are related to commercial quantity with the arrest of 18079 drug smugglers including 2643 notorious ones towards Punjab’s ambitious zero drug smuggling plan.

The police have also recovered Rs 13.29 crores of drug money from the possession of arrested drug smugglers apart from the recovery of 837.42 kg opium, 951.37 kg ganja, 404.45 quintals of poppy husk, and 89 lakhs tablets/capsules/injections/vials of pharma opioids from across the state.

Also read : Punjab BSF shoots intruder along Indo-Pak border in 2nd incident in a week