KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Chandigarh unit had seized 2.7 kilo gram opium and 6.14 kilo gram Heroin from Ludhiana, Amritsar and Ferozepur in Punjab in two weeks preceding Independence Day (August 15). NCB Director General (DG) Rakesh Asthana stated that they plan to focus n cross border cartels bringing drugs from Afghanistan. Bureau also plan a crackdown on Delhi-Punjab drug network operated by Af-Pak based cartels.
Drug smugglers opened fire at a Police party at Dadial village in Hoshiarpur District. The Police party was conducting a raid when the smugglers fired upon them. One smuggler was arrested while two others escaped. A pistol and 100 grams of intoxicant powder was recovered.
One man was arrested along with one kilo gram of heroin worth INR one Million from Sirhind town in Fatehgarh Sahib District. He reportedly confessed that he brought drugs from Delhi and supplied in the various Districts of Punjab.
A man was arrested for firing at the anti-drug campaign committee member at Kotli Ablu village in Muktasar District. A country made pistol and seven rounds of ammunition were recovered from the arrestee. Initial investigation has reportedly revealed that the arrestee was involved in drug peddling
Two female drug peddlers, Manjit Kaur alias Bitto and Amarjeet Kaur alias Kalo were arrested from Rajgarh village in Ludhiana District and Police seized 850-gram heroin worth over INR 1.5 crore and INR 5,00,000 drug money from their possession.
Son of a Sarpanch (village head), Harwinder Singh was arrested with one kilo gram of opium outside Baghapurana in Moga District.
A teenager who was abducted for ransom was allegedly murdered by drug addicts in Verka in Amritsar District of Punjab. The victim was identified as Prabhkeerat Singh. The perpetrators have been arrested by the Police.
An individual identified as Jagdish Sharma died of an overdose of a synthetic drug at Ahata Badan Singh locality in Moga District.
Special Task Force (STF) arrested head constable Gagandeep, alias Gaggi Khanna and his two accomplices for drug peddling and recovered 785 gram heroin from their possession from an unspecified location. His accomplices have been identified as Amandeep Singh, aliasMauli, and Vikas Kumar, alias Lara.
Two drug peddlers were arrested from Sirsa District in separate incidents. A drug peddler identified as Laksham Singh was arrested from Bappa village in Sirsa District with 100 kilo grams of Chura Post. Separately, another drug peddler identified as Vinod Kumar was arrested with 12 kilo grams of Marijuana from an unspecified location in Sirsa District.
Anti-Narcotic Cell team recovered 20 grams of heroin from two drug peddlers, identified as Mohit Kumar and Jitender Singh in Baba Hanuman Singh Chowk in Sirsa District.
A member of anti-drug campaign committee was shot and wounded by drug peddlers at Kotli Ablu in Muktsar District.
Mansa Police conducted extensive searches in houses of 51 people suspected of drug peddling or liquor smuggling in the District. The Police arrested 13 people and registered 11 cases.
According to a report, Punjab is struggling to wean its youth from substance abuse. An estimated 7.2 lakh people in Punjab, out of its around 3-crore population, need treatment for opioid addiction, according to a study by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Over 42 lakh people in Punjab are involved in substance abuse, including opioid, cannabis, alcohol and sedatives, it found. The figures on substance abuse in Punjab are stark. Punjab Police have arrested 34,443 persons in a total of 28,214 FIRs registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act since April 2017.‘At present, 51% of the total 23,033 prisoners in 24 jails of Punjab are undertrials or convicts in NDPS Act cases.As per official figures, there have been 134 drug overdose deaths since 2017 to date and around 4,000 viscera samples, including those of suspected drug overdose deaths, are pending with Punjab’s only functional chemical examining laboratory in Kharar.
An elderly man identified as Amar Singh was shot and wounded when drug peddlers selectively shot at some houses in Shamkhera in Muktsar District. Police has registered a case against eight people. However, no arrest has been made so far.
Punjab Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa accepted in the State Legislative Assembly that drugs and mobile phones were being smuggled into prisons in the State. The Minister informed the assembly that his department was taking this "seriously" and seized 576 cellphones from various jails and suspended 20 jail staffers in six months. Six jail employees of the Patiala jail have been dismissed and Ferozpur jail superintendent has been demoted to the post of deputy jail superintendent, said the Minister.
The recent seizures of over 1,100 kg of heroin in the Indian subcontinent have left the investigating agencies worried about a spurt in the activities of Pakistan-based drug-trafficking syndicates in the region. A case in point is the seizure by the Customs at the Attari Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Amritsar District of Punjab in June of 532 kg of heroin and 52 kg of other drugs. They had been declared rock salt. The alleged kingpin, Tariq Ahmed Lone of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested, along with importer Gurpinder Singh. “The consignment was booked in the name of Global Vision Impex, a front for Pakistan’s ISI, in Lahore,” the official said.
In a joint operation, Ludhiana Special Task Force (STF) and Ludhiana Rural Police recovered over 4.5-kilogram heroin, worth crores in the international market, at Mamdot in Ferozepur District of Punjab near the India-Pakistan border.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in connection with the narcotics terror case in Amritsar in Punjab, visited the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan. A team formed of NIA officials, Customs officers and Punjab Police interrogated the importers at the ICP and asked for the list which contained the list of the goods which are being transported from across the border.
The Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police recovered about 10 lakh tramadol tablets from Bathinda in Bathinda District.The opioid-based tablets are a schedule H drug under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act and used as a pain-killer. According to the reports, The kingpin, Pradeep Goyal, had supplied about 70 lakh tablets in the past few months.
The intelligence sources revealed that Pakistan is using Khalistani terrorist and ‘chief’ of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), Paramjit Singh Panjwar to smuggle drugs into India via carpet exports to the west and south-east Asia for fuelling militancy in Punjab. Paramjit Singh Panjwar is based in Lahore since 1994, whereas his wife and two sons live in Frankfurt in Germany. The nexus has been exposed after massive seizures of drugs shipped from Pakistan by the Coast Guards of the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India in recent months.
The Customs Department had seized 532 kg of suspected heroin, worth around 2,700 crores, being smuggled from Pakistan in a truck through the trade route at the Attari border. The consignment was hidden under bags of salt in the truck which had come from Pakistan and one person was also arrested while another was detained.
The BSF and Punjab Police, jointly in an operation, arrested three persons—Sonu Singh, Gurnam Singh, and Gurjeet Singh, and recovered 1.8 kg of heroin from their possession, nearby the India-Pakistan International Border [IB] near Gatti Bisoke of Fazilka District in Punjab. The officials involved in the operations recovered two plastic bags containing 15 small packets of heroin worth INR 9 crore in the international market.
The BSF recovered 13 packets weighing 5.6 kg of heroin from nearby the Bharopal Border Outpost in Amritsar Sector of Punjab. Reportedly, Pakistan based drug smugglers were trying to slip heroin into the Indian Territory.
The officials of the BSF, has prevented an attempt of intrusion by a Pakistan-based drug smuggler [identity unknown], and recovered 17 kg of Heroin along with arms and ammunition nearby Karma Border outpost of India-Pakistan Border in Ferozepur Sector of Punjab. During a search operation along with the Border fence, the BSF personnel recovered 17 packets, each of a kilogram, of heroin worth INR 85 crore, a Pakistan-made pistol, a modified weapon with three magazines and 26 live rounds.
The officials of 136th Battalion of the BSF recovered three packets of heroin weigh 1.5 kg in total, worth INR 2.5 crore, from near the Barreke Border outpost of the India-Pakistan International Border in the Ferozepur Sector of Punjab.
Acting upon intelligence inputs, the BSF and Anti-Narcotics Cell recovered three packets of heroin weigh 4.30 kg worth INR 22 crore in the international market, from Border Outpost of Shameke of India-Pakistan Border in Ferozepur Sector of Ferozepur district in Punjab. The packets were kept inside the hollow space in a tree.
The BSF officials observed some suspicious activity and recovered three kilograms of heroin near the International Border (IB) at Ranian village of Ludhiana district in Punjab.
Police arrested three Kashmiri students—Mir Junaib Khalid, Sejal Mohamed, and Adnan Farooq Dar from Kharar town in Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar District and recovered 30gms of heroin from their possession. All three were produced before the Kharar Court and sent to a day of Police remand. The accused were coming from Chandigarh and were staying at rented homes in two separate societies located on Kharar-Landran Road, said an unnamed official. Likely, these students were taking drugs from Delhi and supplying to other Kashmiri students of private colleges in Mohali District of Chandigarh.
The BSF recovered six plastic bottles filled with heroin weighing six kg in total, from river Sutlej near Joginder Border Outpost in Abohar Sector in Fazilka District in Punjab. The bottles flowed-in from Pakistan with the current of river. The recovered heroin is worth INR 30 Crore in the international market.
The BSF officials recovered two Pakistan-based SIM cards, and 330 grams of heroin nearby the Old Mohamddi Wala Border Outpost in Ferozepur Sector in Punjab.
In a joint operation conducted by the BSF, Ferozepur District Police and the STF, 2.77 kilogram of heroin and 50 Pakistan-made rounds of .30 calibre pistol were recovered from the Border Outpost of Jagdish Sector along with the India-Pakistan border. The STF also arrested Baldev Singh who is resident of Nihalewala village of Ferozepur District and alleged cross-border drug peddler.
The BSF and the Punjab Police carried out a joint operation in which a drug smuggler, Jiwan Singh, resident of Gajni wala village in Ferozepur District, Punjab was arrested and 12.7 Kg of heroin worth INR 65 crore was recovered from nearby India-Pakistan border in the Abohar Sector in Fazilka District in Punjab. Jiwan Singh was involved in cross-border drug peddling and had connection with smugglers in Pakistan. A cellular phone with Pakistani SIM card was also recovered from Jiwan Singh.
In a joint operation carried-out by the BSF and the STF of Amritsar on early hours of February 20, an unidentified Pakistani smuggler was killed and 10 kilograms of heroin was recovered from his possession at India-Pakistan border outpost at Ferozepur Sector in Ferozepur District of Punjab.
In a joint operation based on Intelligence inputs, the BSF and Punjab Police arrested Hans Singh—resident of Gajniwala Village, with two Kilograms of heroin, packed in four packets, worth INR 10 crores in international market, from nearby of India-Pakistan border outpost of Dona Raja Dina Nath, Amritsar Sector. The SFs also recovered a Pakistani mobile SIM card along with heroin buried under the soil
The BSF recovered seven kilograms of heroin from an unidentified area near the border outpost New Dona Rai Dina Nath (DRDN) at the India-Pakistan border in Forezepur Sector, Ferozepur District in Punjab. The heroin was wrapped in seven packets, each of a kilogram, of polythene and was concealed under the grass near the International border.
The BSF had recovered 20 kilograms of heroin worth INR 100 crores along with the Adhain India-Pakistan border outpost in Gurdaspur District of Punjab.
The Special Task Force (STF) arrested three members of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) group along with 2.5 kilograms of Heroin from Ludhiana city in Ludhiana District of Punjab. The STF arrested Gurlal, who, along with two other men, was going to Firozepur to supply the Heroin, sources said.
Police arrested two drug smugglers from Tarn Taran District and recovered contacts of about 130 Pakistan-based smugglers from their mobile phones. An official spokesperson said Sukhbir Singh alias Titu of Naushera Dhalla village in Tarn Taran District and Tasveer Singh alias Tassu of Dhanoya Kalan in Amritsar District both in their sixties were arrested. About 6 kg heroin, a Pakistani SIM card, two rifles and a motorcycle were recovered from them.
Mohali Police arrested three persons, identified as Harjinder Singh, Gurjant Singh, and Sandeep Singh, along with Pakistani SIM card, mobiles, weapons and ammunition. The three criminals were involved in an interstate narcotics smuggling gang.
BSF Recovered drugs and weapons from over 550 kilometres of the porous India – Pakistan border. BSF troopers confiscated around 344 kilograms of heroin from the IB, which was the second major seizure in the past five years.
Arms and ammunition (a pistol, two magazines, 10 live rounds), fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) totalling INR 5, 97, 500, narcotics and a Pakistani SIM card were seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) near the Noor Wala border outpost in Ferozepur Sector of International Border (IB). In another operation of the BSF near the border outpost at Kulwant, 1-kilogram heroin was seized. The contraband is worth INR 5 crore in the international market
A major narcotics racket was neutralized and Goods worth INR 70 million seized from nine men by police. The consignment-1 kilogram of Alprazolam, an anti-depressant, 6.4 kilograms of heroin and around 2 kilograms of opium-was being transported from Punjab by a group of men from Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Punjab. The accused have been identified as Harjinder Singh (28), Durgesh (33) from Punjab, Ubah Casmir Amobi (35), Abu Bakr (28), Mohd Akhtar (31), Shabir Ahmed Bhat (38), Ezeh Chinedu Joseph (34), Ugo Geoffery Franklin (39), and HaziImamudin (50).14 mobile phones have also been seized.
Police recovered nearly five kilograms of heroin from a goods train returning from Pakistan in the border region of Punjab.
Two Pakistani smugglers were shot dead by BSF and 12 kilograms of heroin and 1 AK-47 rifle was recovered at International Border in Punjab.
A Pakistani smuggler shot dead by BSF personnel and recovered 24 kilograms of heroin from him from the Majhmian border outpost area close to the Indo-Pak border in the Amritsar sector. Troops had laid an ambush near the border on the intervening night of March 27 and 28. Soon, the troops observed some suspicious movement of Pakistani smugglers near the border who were trying to insert a plastic pipe through the border fence to push heroin packets across.
BSF recovered 22 kilograms of heroin close to the India-Pakistan border near Ulloke village of Ferozepur District. Disclosing this, BSF received inputs regarding smuggling from the area around the Ulloke border outpost, following which security was intensified in the area.
BSF seized one pistol, 30 live rounds, three Pakistani mobile phones and four SIM cards along with 22 packets of 22 kilogram of heroin, valued at around INR 1.10 billion and 20 gram of opium, after gun battle with Pakistani smugglers, in which one smuggler from Indian side, Tasveer Singh died and other two Balwinder Singh and Fateh Singh were injured.
BSF seized FICN with a face value of INR 7, 83,000 along with four kilograms of heroin near a border outpost in Attari of Amritsar District (Punjab) along the Indo-Pakistan border. BSF Punjab Frontier has issued operational guidelines to strengthen border to check narcotics smuggling because of ongoing cultivation and monsoon season, and also to check the activities of anti-national elements along Punjab border with Pakistan.
Arms and ammunition along with heroin worth INR 650 million were seized by BSF personnel at border outpost Mullakot, Amritsar sector on the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab. The consignment had 13 packets of heroin; one.30 bore pistol, two magazines, and 24 rounds.