CHANDIGARH: In a joint operation, Border Security Force and Punjab Police seized 40kg of heroin from along the Indo-Pak border at Panj Grayan outpost. The haul is worth Rs 200 crore.
Sources said the seizure was made at Panj Grayan border, when Pakistani smugglers were pushing in the drugs wrapped in plastic packets into the Indian territory through a PVC pipe inserted through the barbed wire fence on the border.
A long plastic pipe was also seized. Sleuths of the 73rd battalion of BSF opened fire when they noticed suspicious movement around 2.30 am.
“During the intervening night of Friday and Saturday at the border pillar 57/2 on Indo-Pak international border, a long PVC pipe was put and the smugglers tried to push the he roi n through it into the Indian side. Noticing this, BSF personnel fired more than 60 rounds and the smugglers ran away taking advantage of the dark,” said a BSF official.
Director General of Punjab Police, Dinkar Gupta said following inputs that a notorious smuggler was attempting to smuggle heroin through the Indo-Pak Border, BSF was alerted. He added that a police team comprising DSP Gurinderpal Singh and DSP Ajnala Vipan Kumar also reached the spot to nab the smugglers.
Gupta said the joint teams of Punjab Police and BSF seized the huge heroin cache, besides recovering 180 grams of opium and two plastic pipes made in Pakistan. The police have also impounded a motorcycle and a scooty belonging to the smugglers.
“The police have launched a manhunt to arrest the main culprit,” said SSP Amritsar (Rural) Gulneet Singh Khurana, adding that investigations are on and the accused are likely to be arrested soon.
Khurana said the smugglers used Pakistan made plastic pipes to get the heroin across the border fence in neatly tied packets. A case under NDPS Act, Foreigners Act, and Indian Passport Act has been registered in Amritsar.