PATHANKOT: In wake of elections in the neighbouring state Himachal Pradesh (HP), the Pathankot police administration has tightened security at the interstate borders with the Chamba and Kangra districts of HP.
In an initial success, police claim to have recovered 265 grams of heroin being smuggled from Chamba to Amritsar following the arrest of three drug peddlers at a special checkpoint, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh on Monday.
He said police had arrested Laddi Singh alias Bony of Bhoma Badala, Majitha, Naresh Kumar alias Kaku of Raj Nagar and Shakti Chand of Guhari, Chamba. The cops also impounded their Innova car in whose dashboard the alleged accused had concealed the drugs.
He informed that police had received secret information that the aforementioned smugglers were engaged in the business of supplying heroin in different areas of Punjab by bringing it from poll-bound HP’s Chamba.
In the recent past, Pathankot police had held a meeting with the district administration of Chamba and Kangra and decided to take stringent measures at the interstate borders.
Pathankot district shares 55, 45, and 26 kilometers boundary with HP, Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan respectively.
Khakh informed that during the preliminary investigation, the alleged accused confessed to the crime. “They admitted that they were smuggling the consignment from Chamba to Amritsar", said the SSP adding that police had launched detailed investigations .
Stating that Chamba is known to produce "charas", sources wondered why the heroin was being smuggled into Punjab via Chamba. "One of the possibilities is that J and K based smugglers could be finding an alternate route to smuggle heroin in Punjab," said sources.
Meanwhile police seized a huge cache of crackers from the wholesale cracker traders in Gosaipur village of Pathankot on Monday with the arrest of three persons identified as Vinod Kumar, Ashish Kumar, and Bunty .
SSP informed that deputy superintendent of police, Dhar Kalan had conducted the raid and seized the crackers stock valued in several lakhs of rupees adding that a case under the sections of the Explosive Substance Act had been registered abasing them.
