J&K: Five Cops Among 17 Arrested As Police Bust Pakistan-Linked Drug Racket

Five policemen were among 17 people arrested when a huge narcotics smuggling ring originating in Pakistan was dismantled in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara area, according to authorities.

J&K Police SOG personnel (Image Used For Representational Purpose)

Source : PTI

Five cops were among 17 persons arrested as a major narcotics smuggling module, originating from Pakistan, was busted in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Friday.

"In one of its biggest successes against drug smuggling and peddling in the district, Police has arrested 17 persons, including five policemen, a political activist, a contractor and a shopkeeper from different areas of the districts of Kupwara and Baramulla, unearthing another narcotics smuggling module originating from Pakistan," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. 

He stated that while working tirelessly to identify and prosecute drug peddlers in the north Kashmir district, police honed in on several drug peddlers in Kupwara town and its surrounding areas.

"On a tip-off, one Mohammad Waseem Najar – a poultry shop owner and inhabitant of Darzipura, Kupwara – was caught with some quantity of narcotics from his private house," added the spokesperson.

According to the spokesman, after preliminary investigations, Najar admitted to being a member of a large group of drug peddlers and revealed the identities of some of his associates from the district as well as the Uri area of district Baramulla who were participating in this illegal enterprise.

"Subsequent raids were conducted at various places across the district and 16 more persons were arrested," he added.

According to the statement, among those arrested were five police officers: Haroon Rasheed Bhat, Irshad Ahmed Khan, Sajad Ahmad Bhat, Zahid Maqbool Dar, and Constable Abdul Majeed Bhat.

Ishfaq Habib Khan, a political activist, was also among those detained.

Tahir Ahmed Malik, a resident of Rigipora, Khursheed Ahmed Khan, a dry fruits shopkeeper and his son Imtiyaz Khan, Tamheed Ahmed Khan, a Pakistan-based terrorist handler, Roman Mushtaq Bhat, a resident of Uri in Baramulla, and Asif Rashid Hajam, a resident of Batergam in Kupwara, was also arrested, according to the spokesman.

Abid Ali Bhat, a resident of Bohipora in Kupwara, Tanveer Ahmad Wani, a contractor, Nadeem Javed of Uri in Baramulla, and Tahir Ahmad Khan, a resident of Boniyar in Baramulla, were also detained by various teams of Police Station Kupwara, according to him.

The cracking of this module has once again revealed the direct involvement of Pakistan-based terrorist handlers in trafficking narcotics into the Kashmir Valley with the goal of destroying Kashmiri youth, according to the spokesman.

In this case, Shakir Ali Khan, a Pakistan-based terrorist handler originally from Keran, has emerged as the primary narcotics supplier to his son Tahmeed Khan on this side of the Line of Control (LoC).

Tahmeed Khan's confession and disclosure resulted in the recovery of two packets of Heroin-like material weighing roughly 2 kg from his home.

Khan used to take it to Kupwara in order to sell it to his now-arrested associates. According to the spokesman, his father, Shakir Ali Khan, initially crossed the LoC in the early 1990s to join the terrorist ranks.

He infiltrated back and became one of the most active Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists in Keran for quite some time after receiving training in illegal weaponry and ammunition, he added.

Feeling the fire from security forces, Khan crossed the LoC again and fled to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where he is now a top terrorist handler involved in smuggling weaponry, ammunition, and narcotics into the valley, according to the spokesman.

During the course of the inquiry, the police discovered that the head of this module, Tahmeed Khan, sneaked in roughly 5 kg of narcotics worth Rs 5 crore into the market from Pakistan over the last three months.

Approximately 2 kg was found in the current instance, about a kg was peddled among drug peddlers and users, and about 2 kg remains untraced, he noted.

In the current year, 85 cases have been filed against 161 people in the district. According to the spokesman, 33 people involved in narcotics smuggling have been detained and incarcerated in various jails under the PSA (PIT-NDPS Act).

(With Inputs From PTI)